Jane Bugler
Raising the profile of the competence of offshore personnel, and the value of company competence schemes, across the marine construction industry is one of the core activities of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA)
Following the development of freelance materials for its Offshore Survey and Remote Systems & ROV divisions, and a revision of core Marine and Diving competence frameworks in 2012, IMCA has now launched freelance materials for its Marine and Diving divisions. This means that IMCA now offers a full suite of competence assurance frameworks tailored specifically for freelance workers.
“Our message to all individual freelancers is simple, ” says Jane Bugler, IMCA’s Technical Director. “Please make use of these invaluable tools to tap into the assessment and verification process already operated by companies to which you are contracted in order to track and record the completion of competences assigned to your role. We are holding an increasing number of Competence Seminars – so far this year in Aberdeen and Kuala Lumpur, with one in Houston, Texas yet to come on 19 September – these certainly increase the profile of the competence of freelance personnel within companies, personnel agencies and amongst individual freelancers.”
Based on the core IMCA frameworks, the IMCA freelance materials come complete with introductory guidance, worked examples and supplementary sections to record both assessor and verifier details and comments. The packs can be found on the IMCA website atwww.imca-int.com where they can be downloaded free of charge.
About IMCA
- IMCA is an international association with more than 915 members over 60 countries representing offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies. IMCA has four technical divisions, covering marine/specialist vessel operations, offshore diving, hydrographic survey and remote systems and ROVs, plus geographic sections for the Asia-Pacific, Central & North America, Europe & Africa, Middle East & India and South America regions. As well as a core focus on safety, the environment, competence and training, IMCA seeks to promote its members’ common interests, to resolve industry-wide issues and to provide an authoritative voice for its members.
- IMCA publishes some 200 guidance notes and technical reports – many are available for free downloading by members and non-members alike. These have been developed over the years and are extensively distributed. They are a definition of what IMCA stands for, including widely recognised diving and ROV codes of practice, DP documentation, marine good practice guidance, the Common Marine Inspection Document (CMID) – now available electronically as eCMID, safety recommendations, outline training syllabi and the IMCA competence scheme guidance. In addition to the range of printed guidance documents, IMCA also produces safety promotional materials, circulates information notes and distributes safety flashes
