Together we Strengthen Safety

Being a professional diver entails diverse work. A diver could work in an aquarium, within the offshore or inshore industries, within the military or as a customs, salvage or police diver. It is a dedicated profession that, without the correct training, cannot be done. A structured and high-quality professional diver training offer is demanded by the industry. Recently, a cooperation of three institutes have sought to meet the high requirements by simplifying and structuring the training offer, giving the professional diving industry exactly what it requires.

An increase of fatalities in the 1970s and the prediction that professional diving was to increase in the decades to come, formed the basis of legislating the Dutch diving profession. The Royal Netherlands Army was the only institute who licensed civilian professional divers and they, together with other entities, decided on founding the Netherlands Diving Center (NDC). “To train professional divers in their own language and in their own country, that was the initial goal, when founding the NDC”, states Carin Bot of the NDC. In the mid-1980s an agreement between the Netherlands Ministry of Defense and the NDC was established regarding the release of rest capacity in diving courses for the industry. However, during the last years the Defense Diving School (DDS) prioritised their military courses, resulting in insufficient capacity to fulfill the total needs of the diving industry.

Increase training capacity

Recently, the certification of the professional diving profession in the Netherlands has taken a leap. In 2008 the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment initiated a system change in certification including certification for professional diving. As part of this change, a unique cooperation between the DDS, the NDC and Falck has established a flexible, comprehensive and detailed professional dive training. Falck started in May 2008, in the wake of this change,
with providing professional diving courses for the public sector (fire fighting emergency divers, which is part of another department within the Dutch government). Through cooperation in training the diving standards in the Netherlands will improve and the training capacity will increase. A necessary step, as the diver is now a recognised and regulated profession and the (inter)national need for these qualified divers will also increase the forthcoming years.

The training programme

The programme is made up of two categories: the category A programme, consisting of parts one to three, is aimed at basic diving skills and safety in SCUBA-diving, where the category B programme, which runs from parts one to four in surface supplied-diving, teaches how to work whilst diving. Paul Boumans, manager operations/commercial diving at Falck: “Each part within the programme takes you to the next level within the diving profession, moving from clear shallow waters to murky deep waters. At this moment you cannot participate in the category B programme, without finishing your ‘cat A’ first. Category B also culminates in special tool training. This complete system offers more structure, flexibility, training on need to have a basis and a better cooperation. These all lead to the all important exchange of knowledge.”

Necessary requirements

“The goal of the training programme is to ensure the participant learns the required technical and safety skills. We believe in modular training, where theory and development are intertwined”, states Boumans. “The further development of this programme, which was started by the NDC, happened over a very short period of time and as a result we have made sufficient changes over the past years. The training programme is unique within the Netherlands for many reasons, one being that Falck in a private and public cooperation, together with NDC and DDS, offers the programme for professional diving in the full spectrum. So far 300 divers for the public sector and 50 divers for the diving industry have been through the programme, almost all passing with above average percentages.” Peter van der Kruit, chairman of the NDC, agrees, stating: “One of our aims is to have divers trained for safety. In that field there should be no competitive angle whatsoever. Divers must learn how to act safely underwater. Good, safe divers, nothing more and nothing less. The NDC arranged a cooperation with the DDS and Falck to provide training by sharing expertise, facilities and materials for the category A diving programme.”

The DDS and NDC together facilitate the category B side of the programme. Gerard Hekkers of the Ministry of Defense says: “DDS has provided
diving courses for 65 years. Currently 350 participants, consisting of the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces applicants and participants from other government faculties, are trained on a yearly basis. DDS has a considerable contribution regarding the professional image of the Dutch working diver. The Royal Netherlands Navy’s diving capacity is aimed at her military tasks and is put into action over the whole world as well as in our own country. During the recent frost and winter weather the Royal Netherlands Navy divers have had to search for people who have gone missing under the ice due to unfortunate accidents.”

Innovate and ensure safety

Boumans: “This cooperation means an exchange of knowledge, which will help us to improve the professional diving programme, continue our quality and enforce our strength as a company. Our driving force is the ability to innovate, with the necessary risk inventory. Our aim is to ensure more safety and continuity. The training offer is large, but if you start with the correct safety basis, you are better prepared for the more detailed and specific training. Next to that, the level of  equirements is so high for this diving programme, many people will be able to work internationally, although they may need to perform an extra dive here and there. “This cooperation works because we respect and strengthen each other by sharing our knowledge, all the while maintaining a high level of quality and safety.”

The cooperation

“The flexibility directly relates to the needs of the participant. Should a participant work in a swimming pool or tanks with similar conditions like aquaria up to depths of nine metres, he will only require to finish the category A programme part one. This training programme caters to all needs”, explains Boumans. “Together with the category B programme the diving programme will prove valuable for all kinds of professions, such as underwater maintenance, salvage work and a number of jobs within the oil and gas industry. The separation within both categories of professional diving, fireman safety diving on the one hand and professional diving on the other hand, is directly related to different governments who are at this moment responsible for the profession. The DDS was forced to prioritise on military diving courses resulting in marginal training capacity for the industry. Through cooperation the training capacity could be increased in a efficient and effective manner. The thought being two heads, or in this case three, are better than one. Together we strengthen the safety.”

Rebecca McFedries