New accreditation scheme will ‘raise the bar’ for offshore safety and competency.

 Orion Group and Archer Knight announce pioneering new competency assessment service

Recruitment firm Orion Group and energy industry consultants Archer Knight have announced a new partnership (OAK) to ensure greater standards in offshore diving, subsea and marine disciplines.

The highlight of the new joint venture is the OAK accreditation, a new assessment standard designed to give clients and operators greater assurance of skill and competency levels in the candidates they hire.

Derek Beddows, Director of Diving Safety & Services at Archer Knight said: “This is all about delivering the right person, into the right role, at the right time.

“There is a recognised need to ensure individuals who are selected to fill certain roles are set up from the beginning to succeed, not to fail. This partnership, and the OAK accreditation, will give unparalleled levels of competency assessments.”

The assessment process will create a talent pool for OAK clients, with individuals who have consistently high skill levels across a variety of disciplines.

Orion Group will target strong suitable candidates with existing experience across a range of disciplines with recognised competencies that global clients normally look for.

Archer Knight will then carry out focused assessments and evaluations based around the individuals existing training and experience. Candidates will be interviewed face-to-face by OAK-approved specialists, before receiving accreditation. Unlike other existing training and certification schemes, there is no associated cost for candidates to secure the OAK accreditation.

Mr Beddows, who was BP’s first Global Diving Technical Authority and a highly respected diving industry safety professional, said: “It is time to raise the bar for safety, compliance and delivery. For clients and operators this gives greater assurance of competence and excellence. For the individuals in the role this helps provide what 

is often missing – job security and satisfaction, and better recognition and appreciation of those who help to deliver success in a difficult working environment.

“Ultimately this will result in a safer, more successful and more satisfying project delivery.”

Steven Greig, Regional Director at Orion Group said:

“Orion has a long history of providing competent personnel across a variety of industry sectors during the past 30 years. By forming this unique partnership agreement with Archer Knight, we are providing an excellent platform for both companies to further enhance our service offerings across our core client base within the energy sector. This service enhancement will ultimately ensure that all project and operational activities are carried out in a safe and timely manner by competent personnel.“