BY This is North Scotland

DIVE CENTRE HELPING PLUG SKILL GAP
The NHC, bidding to establish itself as a worldwide centre of excellence for subsea safety, will develop equipment to be used in a new saturation-diving ...

The National Hyperbaric Centre (NHC) in Aberdeen is playing a key role an initiative to help to tackle the critical offshore skill shortage by training more divers to work in the energy sector.

The NHC, bidding to establish itself as a worldwide centre of excellence for subsea safety, will develop equipment to be used in a new saturation-diving system to be built at Scotland's Professional Diving Academy (PDA), at Dunoon.

The collaboration is part of a £1million-plus investment package for the academy announced by Scottish Enterprise Minister Jim Mather yesterday.

NHC managing director David Smith, also a PDA director, said: "The new developments will complement the existing training facilities and address the skills gap faced by the booming offshore industry as a whole."

It is estimated that over the next two or three years the marine contracting industry will need an extra 800 personnel in saturation diving and related positions, along with thousands of people in other disciplines.

The training school's new saturation-diving system, in which divers can live at pressure for up to 28 days, will be installed on one of the academy's vessels berthed in the Holy Loch.

Mr Mather made his investment announcement during an open day at the three-year-old training centre to showcase the facilities available. He said: "This is a great example of how a relatively new enterprise can provide vital skills for Scotland's energy sector."

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