In meetings where all stakeholders took part, the ECITB and Petrotekno listened to BP regarding the skills they required for future employees, whilst simultaneously establishing the educational standard level of the target demographic and which section of the population should be targeted as potential trainees.  Local Government knowledge and priorities were all part of the discussions, which ultimately led to a strategy being formed that took all these and many more economic, social and political factors into account.

The ECITB was a key part of the discussions and using its decades of experience elsewhere in the world within the Oil and Gas Industry, was able to define the skills requirement within the strategy and work with Petrotekno to create the right training standards (in agreement with the BSNP), course content and qualifications, as well as issuing the appropriate licences to individual trainers to enable delivery of such training.

Petrotekno, realising it would need at least three new facilities across the region, worked with the Government of Indonesia to secure grants, planning permissions and funding etc. to get these set up; the ECITB then approved these facilities as meeting the requirements to deliver its globally recognised technical training standards.

Within less than a year the first students enrolled on the first Petrotekno Courses across three training facilities: Puncak, Sunter and Bintuni.  In 4-6 month long residential courses (6 days a week), 100 x 16-21 year olds at a time are trained in Health and Safety, Pipefittings, Scaffolding, Rigging, Welding and Mechanical Fitting/Maintenance.

In addition to vocational training, they are taught English and basic life skills such as organisation, budgeting, communication, time-management, decision making etc.  The nature of the training and the starting level of the candidates mean that traditional training delivery has been the only viable option; e-learning or a blended learning approach would not work and the residential part means that trainees do not have to spend money travelling to and from the course and also provides the best environment for the life skills elements to be taught.

The merit of this approach is borne out by a 98% pass rate being achieved so far with 100% of those passing (before 2020) being offered employment on the Tannguh Project (a total of more than 700 have graduated to date).  The Minister for Education has personally attended, spoken and presented certificates to trainees at several of the graduation ceremonies.

These qualifications are industry standards and mean that individuals are able to utilise them in other parts of the world in future years too.

So far the courses run have been extremely well received with more than 700 graduates in three years.  This general upskilling of young members of the local population has changed lives for the better and there are films on YouTube of this specific project that illustrate just that.  The area of Papua Barat has long been impoverished and subject to significant political turmoil for decades.  Once the Indonesian Government had overall control of this semi-autonomous region they have been able to influence its regeneration.

This LNG project is expected to run for the next 30 years as a minimum and will provide a long term, stable future, for the people of the area.  Working together with a local and highly professional Training Provider, the ECITB and Government Agencies have been able to make a real difference and are helping the Project to reach the Government’s ambitious target for workforce composition.

Benefits to the UK include revenue for the ECITB, which directly feeds into grants paid to the UK’s Engineering Construction Industry employers but perhaps more importantly, shows the UK as a genuine force for good in the region, able to work collaboratively with public and private agencies, profit and not for profit organisations, whilst maintaining the highest standards expected of UK plc in all respects.