Leader

Rogaland and the greater Stavanger region have been the centre of competence development in oil & gas activities since the start of the petroleum business in Norway in the 1970s. In this region are found the main offices of the biggest oil companies, together with the principal contractor and service companies supplying this industrial branch. Here too are the educational institutions that provide skilled personnel for the sector.

RKK and the vocational schools in the region have people who have been there since the beginning and therefore have unique experience of the petroleum industry. We have also engaged senior personnel from the sector, both oil companies and suppliers.

Norway is the only country where all education in the sector is integrated in the state education system, thereby guaranteeing national standards and quality of education. This is done in close cooperation with the industry itself.

The school sector ensures that the petroleum industry has a continuous recruitment base through the national apprenticeship scheme leading to craft certificate qualifications.

As well as this, the vocational schools, through RKK, offer further/continuing education programmes, retraining and certifying courses to personnel already working in the branch. The biggest school of this type is Stavanger Offshore Technical College, but there are another 10 schools in the market offering specialist training.

Education and training can be combined with full-time employment, because of the way we use ICT and “blended learning”. This means that continuing education can be followed regardless of time and place and is therefore both practical and cost-saving.

We have a long list of references in the field of continuing education.

It is therefore a logical step for us now to extend this offer of competence to countries outside Norway . In doing so, our membership of INTSOK (Norwegian Oil & Gas Partners) and our cooperation with Petrad, Innovation Norway, Norad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of great importance, as is naturally our close cooperation with the industry itself.

Through our development plan, we have affirmed that we aim to accompany Norwegian enterprises as they seek to establish activities on the international market, and we have already made good progress in this area.