Establishing a South West Centre of Excellence for CompEx Training
By Matthew Taylor, Hazardous Area Training Manager at Alderley
23 September 2022
Alderley’s new CompEx Training Centre brings millions within a short drive for best-in-class tuition for those working in explosive environments
For the uninitiated CompEx training focuses on educating electrical and mechanical engineers, technicians, and inspectors working in explosive environments.
The training programme was started several decades ago following the tragic and avoidable Piper Alpha disaster where in 1988, 167 personnel died on board a North Sea oil platform.
CompEx was devised to ensure that incidents like at Piper Alpha did not happen again.
It initially focused on ensuring competency, risk assessment and safety in the highly regulated energy sector. But now it is the recognised standard for personnel working across a wide range of industries that have a potentially explosive atmosphere including oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food manufacturing and utilities.
It focuses on the risk from the explosive potential of hazardous gases, liquids, and dusts. Nowadays most companies insist on the qualification and are stringent demanding that employees working in explosive environments have completed the course. It has become a global benchmark in safety.
What we’ve done at Alderley in partnership with safety specialists ExVeritas, an ATEX/UKCA and IECEx Certification Body and Ex Training specialist, is to fill a gap by providing CompEx training courses in the South West, at our campus near Bristol. We’ve established the campus so that CompEx training can be easily accessed by those living not just in our region but also the South and South East, Midlands, and Wales.
CompEx training is now on the doorstep for many professionals working in hazardous areas. Previously, delegates from the region would typically have to travel to the North of the UK often making CompEx training unduly expensive given travel time and costs to an inconvenient location.
The opening of the new training centre coincides with growing demand in the UK for qualified support on strategic projects of national significance such as Hinkley Point C in north Somerset, South West England or at the various energy hubs springing up across the country.
Alderley can now deliver training that assesses candidates to the CompEx standard for units ExF, F+, Ex12, Ex14. Ex01-04 will soon be added to the training schedule. Training is a mixture of theory and practical elements and can be completed within a week.
Our ambition is for Alderley’s CompEx training campus to become a ‘centre of excellence’ in the UK and internationally thereby reflecting the company’s global footprint and heritage as a player in the Middle East’s energy sector. We feel it’s a realistic proposition for those at international companies (IOCs and NOCs) to come to Bristol with its excellent transport links to undergo the training.
If you are interested in Alderley’s CompEx training offer and would like to know more, please do not hesitate to drop me a line.
We look forward to welcoming you to Alderley and CompEx training.
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Matthew Taylor is Hazardous Area Training Manager at Alderley and is based in the company’s Wickwar office in Gloucestershire near Bristol. Matthew leads Alderley’s CompEx Training and has 25 years’ experience in the area. He can be contacted directly on: matthew.taylor@alderley.com.
The electrical experts
Benefit from Alderley’s extensive experience in the design, development, inspection and auditing of ATEX / Ex equipment and working in hazardous areas.
