INTVET

RKK is based in the county of Rogaland, Norway’s most international region. It was here that the Norwegian oil business set down roots in the late 1960s, bringing in its wake the most comprehensive change process ever seen in Norwegian industry.

Photo: RKK’s MD, Ole Imsland, signing the contract together with the head of Inefop, Corina Jourdon. In the background to the left we see Vice Minister Sebastiao Luquinda from Mapess and the Norwegian Ambassador to Angola, Jon Vea.

”INTVET", short for "International vocational education and training" is the name of the section responsible for RKK’s international activities and an integral part of the organisation. The other people on the RKK chart represent personnel and professional resources also open to INTVET.

”INTVET” is nevertheless more than just an entity and set of tasks in the RKK organisation: it is the concrete expression of an ambition and undertaking aimed at realising RKK’s vision of being a global actor in the field of vocational training and education, with all that this implies in terms of quality, logistics, content and international standards.

INTVET will play an important role in helping to renew and augment the parent organisation in its regional and national work. RKK’s management has pursued this strategy for a number of years and believes that the results, in the form of established projects and an increasing number of international activities, prove that our efforts have been well directed. Our objective, to stabilise the domestic market at a comfortable level while guaranteeing growth through international engagement, allowing the value of our international activities to surpass that of our home market, seems likely to be achieved in 2009.

To explain why we are moving in this direction we must take the following factors into account: the Norwegian system of vocational education and adult /continuing education has attracted international interest. The establishment of the oil business in Norway in the 1970s led to the development of vocational training in all related areas. Norway thereby became the first country in the world to offer formal vocational education for this sector. In contrast to other countries, where the oil companies themselves provide relevant training for the personnel they need, this is managed in Norway by the public authorities. The importance of having education under the control of the authorities, especially in such a significant area as the oil business, is recognised as an example more countries wish to follow. A further point is that this education has been developed and implemented jointly by the authorities, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO).

Our experience in the field of continuing education is also in demand outside Norway. The RKK model, in which the publicly-funded vocational schools also act as a resource centre for continuing education, continues to attract international attention.

Petroleum companies seeking to develop international operations increasingly encounter demands for “local content” from the authorities of the countries in question. RKK collaborates with several major enterprises on educating local manpower for their projects. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also mandates RKK to conduct projects on its behalf involving the upgrading and development of vocational education in Asia and Africa. These projects are run in close cooperation with the public authorities in the countries concerned.

”Public authorities” means in this context that contact should ideally be initiated at ministerial and government departmental level and be anchored in longterm strategic measures for regional development and key areas in the respective countries.

RKK plans to further strengthen its internationalisation efforts in the years ahead while the domestic market and national activities will continue to be followed up with the market’s and customers’ needs in mind as before. It is therefore encouraging that many of our regional and national clients are also to be found in the countries in which we engage: good relations and positive synergy come about through mutual trust and growing confidence in our ability to meet exacting requirements.