Fort William Training

[JahLion]

Alright Everyone

I’m kind of new to this ROV thing and was in contact with the training centre at fort william about doing one of their courses. Anyway seems like a lot of money. I then stumbled across this site and the general consensus is don’t bother with the course.

My questions are: Having done the course how easy/difficult have the trainees found trying to gain their first start?

Do you think the course was worth the money?

The last question is to the more experience ROV guys. My background is in civil/geotechnical engineering. What, in your humble opinion, would by best way into the industry?

Thanks everyone, all comments welcome.

[Sony]

Hi Jahlion,

To be perfectly honest, I dont think the course was worth my money, the electronics is. Maybe it was the teacher or what you want to call "it". The flying was great and very real.
If somebody else would have paid for me, I would have thought great, but unfortunately…
Pillipines is half the price more flying hours on 2 ROV’s

Verdict: TOO EXPENSIVE and not very professional (Sorry, sad but true!)

Good luck,

Sony

[JahLion]

Thanks for that Sony.

After completing the course did you manage to get yourself a job?

[Sony]

Nope…

Still waiting for replies and phone calls.

I think if you try to get straight into a company training programme would be our best bet, which doesn’t seem very easy, even for me with a few qualifications.

Fingers crossed.

[sean]

I did the course Dec 2005 and got a job straight away. Sounds good? No company I know of is interested in whether you have done the course or not. You will get a job if your technical background is suitable, you are better spending your money on proper education courses like HNC or HND Electrics, Electronics or Hydraulics, which I’m sure you will get for a lot less than £7k.

You can learn more from a book (which I could ‘lend’ you) about ROV work. And as for flying time you can get the ten hours in a week offshore easily as a new start.

[Sony]

I agree with you Sean. Did you have any other qualifications if I’m allowed to ask?
Sony

[JahLion]

Cheers sean

What do u mean u could "lend" me a book!

[JahLion]

Sony
The qualifications that I have is a honours degree in civil engineering. I have experience in civl and geotechnical engineering,

[Crickitt]

I did an 8 week course in Texas in ’05 and was employed by a Canadian company within a month.
That said, the course was basic in the extreme, borderline garbage. I paid about $12k USD, including travel expenses.Had I not had the course on my resume, I dare say that I would not have a job in the ROV industry today.
I did, however, do some homework before taking the plunge. I contacted half a dozen ROV companies in the Houston area and asked them if they had heard of this course and if, when completed, it would help me land a job with their company. They all said yes, it would. So I went for it.
I may not have learned a whole bunch in the course, but it got my foot in the door. The rest I have learned on the job from a bunch of good guys who like to teach what they know.
Will this approach work for you folks over the pond? Probably not, since hiring practices seem to be quite a bit different over there.

Was it worth it?

In my case, my situation, my location, your damn right it was!

[Ray Shields]

Crickitt,

in your case you did the right thing, found out of the course would make a difference – which it obviously did.

Jahlion, if you are looking at UK ROV companies, and you ask them that question, in the main the answer would be "No, not unless you already have a technical background".

For technical background, you are looking at NVQ/SVQ/HNC leve electrical, electronic, hydraulic, mechanical type qual;ifications, PLUS industry experience using the above qualifications.

Civil and geotechnical Im afraid I would say is not so relevant. Also Degrees and such are also not worth as much as they are too "theoretical", you are not needed to design ROVs, but to fix and fly them, which is where the technical quals and hands on come in.

Someone with a degree was once described as "they could tell you the square root of an orange but they couldn’t peel it".

Unless you have more relevant quals and experience as listed above, I would say you would be hard pushed to get into ROVs.

However, with the Geotechnical, you could get in on the survey or geophysical side of some offshore companies, such as Fugro, in which case your quals and experience definately would be relevant.

Hope that helps.

regards, Ray

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