Sparrows Group to launch Centre of Excellence with RelyOn Nutec in Qatar

RelyOn Nutec will roll out the training across 33 centres in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific, in addition to Sparrows’ six training facilities in the US, UK, Angola, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. 

Initially, a Sparrows Centre of Excellence will be launched in RelyOn Nutec’s Qatar facilities in March  to support clients working in the offshore, construction and infrastructure industries, with RelyOn Nutec committing to a significant investment to install its specialist crane and lifting simulator technology (RelyOn Simulation). The Qatar facility will also create up to five new lifting and crane operation roles. 

In addition to Qatar, the partners are also actively assessing new facilities in the Middle East and Kazakhstan. The deal will also herald the start of the build phase of a simulator at RelyOn Nutec’s Wellheads facility in Dyce, Aberdeen, marking another investment in crane and lifting operation training for the organisation. Operating alongside Sparrows’ existing simulator at its Tyrebagger facility in the city, will allow for increased capacity and additional accredited courses to be delivered across both locations. 

“Ensuring the safety of people and equipment is a key part of what we do and developing strong workforce competency underpins that. We established our offshore crane operator training more than 30 years ago and it is globally recognised as the oil and gas industry benchmark,” said Stewart Mitchell, CEO, Sparrows.

“Having this agreement in place supports our strategy for growth and enables us to expand our provision to new locations. With RelyOn Nutec’s expertise in training and competence management, we can ensure the highest standards of training delivery to support safe lifting operations across global industries.” 

RelyOn Nutec has over 33 training centres worldwide including two in the UK, in Aberdeen and Teesside, with a headcount of 800 globally. The company has diversified in recent years, adding to its core training business with a strengthened digital offering and expanding its consultancy services. 

Following the agreement, RelyOn Nutec will manage the delivery of the training services through both companies’ global training facilities, utilising their operations, sales and business development teams and industry training management and competence assurance systems.  

“Sparrows Group is well known as the global technical authority in this industry.  Having Sparrows world leading skills and knowledge aligned to RelyOn Nutec’s training and competence management systems, expertise and global presence will ensure that this safety critical training can be delivered where it is needed most,” said Jason Grant, VP, technical training and simulation, RelyOn Nutec.

“As we see reportable safety incidents in lifting operations increasing in many geographies, with no agreed global standards in place to assure safety and workforce competence, there is no better time to combine the training resources of our two groups and take this safety critical training to the market.”