Launch of ‘Skilled Worker Portal’ to support furloughed and redundant Oil and Gas workers amidst pandemic

The Skilled Worker Portal is accessible here: www.trainingportal.com/skilledworkers and access to the listed courses will last for 3 months, closing on 31st August 2020.

Many industries have not yet released projections on how COVID-19 will affect their workforce, but there is no doubt there will be a detrimental impact. OGUK have estimated that 30,000 oil and gas jobs are likely to be affected, in the UK alone. It is predicted that 41% of exploration and production (E&P) companies are planning redundancies, 32% plan to access the government furlough scheme, whilst 52% of supply chain companies plan redundancies and up to 60% will be furloughed.

Mintra Group (Mintra) provides on-demand digital learning and crew management software solutions for the global Energy and Maritime sectors. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and current low oil and gas prices, Mintra wanted to support their industries by offering free access to their Skilled Worker Portal (SWP) for furloughed and redundant workers. This initiative adds to the free access COVID-19 online courses which Mintra has received a Scottish Parliament commendation for its efforts to best educate people to stop the spread of the virus.

In April 2020, in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, Mintra released courses aimed at preparing people for home working and quarantine, including ‘Display Screen Equipment and Ergonomics’.

Following a motion put forward by an MSP in mid-April, praise was given from the Scottish Parliament for making these online resources quickly available. The courses aimed to help workers keep themselves and their families, informed, on how to best protect themselves against the virus.

Predicting further disruption in the industry and as a part of an ongoing initiative to digitalise the training sector, Mintra has mobilised their Skilled Worker Portal on the 4^th of June 2020. The SWP is completely free access to Trainingportal, Mintra’s online learning and competency management system, with two main objectives. The first, is to provide access to fifteen key industry online courses, for the benefit of furloughed and redundant workers (below).

• Manual Handling

• Working at Height

• Dropped Objects

• Slips, Trips and Falls

• Noise Awareness

• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Awareness

• Naturally Occurring Radiative Material (NORM) Awareness

• Confined Space Entry

• Hydrogen Sulphide Awareness (H2S)

• Asbestos Awareness

• Provisions and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER)

• Task Risk Assessment (TRA)

• Hand Arm Vibration Awareness (HAVS)

• Environmental Awareness

• Introduction to Decommissioning

Mintra’s system users range from onshore office-based personnel to offshore Energy workers and seafarers. They have selected their most popular health, safety, environmental and technical courses to equip furloughed and redundant staff, providing a future starting point for getting back to work and to plug gaps in periodic training requirements. Course material is written to accredited standards and upon completion all participants will be provided with a Mintra certificate.

The secondary function of the SWP aims to empower individual workers and put them in control of their data, which can often be difficult to access, in uncertain times; like we are experiencing at the moment. Typically, businesses store information on behalf of their workers, both self-employed and PAYE employees. HR and L&D data includes qualifications; technical abilities; competencies; soft skills and health and safety records. When large numbers of those who are self-employed find themselves without work and employees are furloughed or made redundant, naturally their records stay with their previous employer.

Mintra hopes that by offering complimentary access to Trainingportal, it will provide an opportunity for individuals to keep their records accessible, notwithstanding their current employment status. Mintra encourages users to build a full Competency Profile by inputting technical abilities, managing career-long training records and accessing complimentary e-learning modules. “The incentive offers resources to help people skill up during lock down and get back to work faster”, Gareth Gilbert, Mintra’s Chief Operations Officer.

OGUK Chief Executive Deirdre Michie:

“This is a welcome initiative from Mintra at a time when many people in our industry face uncertainty due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and low oil and gas prices. We know that oil and gas will be required as part of our energy mix for decades to come, so retaining skills will be key to ensuring the sector can quickly recover and realise now opportunities through an accelerated transition to a low carbon economy."

The Skilled Worker Portal is accessible here: www.trainingportal.com/skilledworkers and access to the listed courses will last for 3 months, closing on 31st August 2020.