So.. what’s the trick to get in?

[Ray Shields]

The first one I believe is about 20-25 years old.

The second one I THINK is a Scorpio that Fugro "donated" to the UWC left over from a survey company they bought in Denmark. It too is probably abot he same age.

You are not very likely to work on either of these type offshore these days. There are still some Scorpios about, but very rare.

[Jeremy]

I think that all prospective entrants should be very carfull when handing out that much money to any training center. I do believe that they do have a place in our industry teaching the new guys what they need to know that is specialised to the subsea industry. However I would hate to hear about a lot of guys having the same experience I did with UWC many years ago. I had paid about 7K in deposits and before I could get into the plane they told me they had gone bankrupt. When they had started up again, with same owner (I heard) and most of the same staff, I contacted them to do another cource( I had done a one at another company soon after) they were not even willing to give a discount. These are trying economic times. Buyer beware!

[Iain620]

Just to add to the previous point I wish I had read this forum prior to doing the course at the UWC, the experienced guys in the industry must and quite rightly be getting t*ts off by ( and I include myself if I had work) at individuals tipping up with a few of weeks introductions to ROVs and expecting to contribute to a job. 22 yrs in the army and a lot of money on a course where upon completion no one is taking trainees. I read older comments with interest and the curve towards companies taking expereince operators is evident, ah well back to work "do you want fries with that?"

[4nailuse]

The first one I believe is about 20-25 years old.

The second one I THINK is a Scorpio that Fugro "donated" to the UWC left over from a survey company they bought in Denmark. It too is probably abot he same age.

You are not very likely to work on either of these type offshore these days. There are still some Scorpios about, but very rare.

Thanks Rayshield. They must have been like this due to the poor maintenance of the training center that uses them. The training center should keep them up in good working condition so that they could last another 20 years.

[PaulB]

Can we put the record straight here gentlemen? As some of the contributors know, the vehicles you know so much about are in our entrance and workshop as example vehicles. If you haven’t seen ROVs before – what better chance to get close! We have another defunct vehicle in the classroom as an exhibit too. We don’t use these for flying – likewise, we have old diving helmets and standard diving suits including a leather-bellows compressor – we don’t use these either! But I am sure you will agree it is nice to see these for real.
What we use during the course are……

Real up-to-date ROVs with real cranes, real A-frames, real sea, real barges, real dive bells, real divers, real current, underwater structures, real wrecks, real pipelines. We don’t have a real rig, but we do have a mock-up of part of a rig, complete with typical features, defects, anodes, structures, and a guide base……
The list goes on.
Getting back to the thread – we also have real students undertaking our real courses – I have just undertaken a survey of ex-students for the last three years (excluding Fugro, SonSub, Subsea 7 and other smaller companys sending trainees to us). From the survey between 75 and 80% have successfully obtained ROV work after having completed our course.
FACTS that the "great and wise" on this site are blissfully unaware of, or don’t share with you!
The source of the earlier photos fails to mention that 6 out of 8 of his class are also working for ROV companies. For them our course was not a bad investment to get into the ROV industry!
Click on my Profile and have a look at my other comments on this website (there are only 8) for more facts, not opinions.
As many of you will see, there is a lot of information and mis-information on this website (that is the nature of anonymous forums) where some people/organisations use such media to discredit any competition for their own purposes.

Paul Bury
Head of ROV Training & Operations,
The Underwater Centre (Fort William)
Email; info@theunderwatercentre.co.uk
http://www.theunderwatercentre.co.uk
Tel (+44)(0) 1397 703 786

[4nailuse]

Hi Paul. Thanks for setting the record straight by posting pictures of your training facilities. Good luck and more power on your company.

Good bless.

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