Baseefa secures training contract with EDF

Baseefa of Buxton, a specialist in hazardous area certification, has landed the largest single training contract in its history - with EDF Energy.

The bespoke, modular DSEAR practitioner training course was designed specifically for EDF Energy and will be used in its eight nuclear power stations in England and Scotland from October. EDF Energy supplies about 9,000 MW annually to the National Grid.

Ron Sinclair, managing director of Baseefa, commented: "This is a major achievement for our fast-expanding training arm, and we are delighted to be working with the largest energy company in the UK."

The deal was set up by Allan Ogden, Baseefa's DSEAR and services manager, and Jeff Healey, one of Baseefa's hazardous area training specialists, and involved running a pilot scheme at EDF's Heysham plant in Lancashire in January.

Each module requires the preparation of a set of detailed student notes to supplement the set of Powerpoint slides with presentation notes. The students' notes are designed to provide sufficient information to limit the need for course participants to refer to numerous other standards or reference documents. It is hoped a training course for more specialist operators will be set up later in the year.

Jeff Healey commented: "I was very impressed by the enthusiasm of the EDF people who were on the pilot course. People showed a lot of interest and we had lots of questions. Safety is obviously vitally important in the field of nuclear energy generation."

David Drury, head of technical training for EDF Energy, said: "It is vital we find the right partners to help us deliver key training across the fleet. After the success of the pilot course at Heysham we will now be rolling this out across all our nuclear stations."

Picture courtesy of David Long.