Shortage of Offshore Safety Training Increases Risk of Injuries

High-ranking offshore industry officials claim that a shortage of top-quality offshore safety training in the Gulf of Mexico could place workers at a real risk of injuries or fatalities. According to these reports, the demand for specific offshore safety training programs, including those that are related to water survival and emergency management training, far exceeds the supply.

Any Houston offshore injury attorney would agree that this poses a potentially dangerous situation for offshore workers. Industry officials insist that there is a continuing demand for high-quality, sophisticated offshore worker training. That demand is expected to continue to grow as drilling efforts off the American coastline increase. With more numbers of rigs and platforms dotting our coastlines, there’s likely to be an increase in the number of workers, who will need access to quality offshore worker safety training programs.

The industry’s attitude towards offshore safety has undergone a marked change since the Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier, companies had their own standards for offshore safety training, and asked training providers to tailor the programs to meet these standards. However, since the BP disaster, the industry has changed its attitudes towards safety training, and there’s an increased demand now for programs that meet global standards.

What has industry officials even more worried is the fact that many baby boomer workers in the oil and gas drilling industry are beginning to retire. That means more vacancies as these positions are vacated. New workers coming in to this industry will need access to top-notch offshore safety training, and the current training programs do not meet the demand.