Oil and Energy

One of the main goals of IHRDC’s Accelerated Competency Based Drilling Technology Program is to replace non-Emirate employees by training new UAE college graduates in drilling industry jobs such as Floor Men, Warehouse Men, Radio Operators, Derrick Men, Assistant Drillers, and Trainee Drillers. A further goal is that of deepening the value of work and promoting a sense of pride among trainees.

IHRDC’s Cairo Office, which specializes in Operations and Maintenance Competency Development Training, is managing the NDC Project. Dr. Samy Salem, Operations Director for IHRDC, Cairo stated: “ From the beginning, IHRDC intended to create a sense of pride in the trainees. Now, they realize that they are pioneers in their vocation and are leading the way for future emirate citizens to enter the drilling field. The credit for this achievement goes to our marvelous team of instructors in Abu-Dhabi”.

IHRDC’s Accelerated Competency Based Drilling Technology Program will prepare a minimum of 280 national trainees to meet World Class standards over a three-year period. Each trainee will receive 105 weeks of training in three phases: Roustabout and Floor Man Module (29 weeks), Derrick Man Module (32 weeks), and Assistant Driller Module (44 weeks). The program includes short-term classroom instruction followed by rigorous on-the-job competency development training.

Mr. Yousef Al-Halabi, NDC Project Manager noted that nine program graduates have already been assigned to rigs as Assistant Drillers and there are many more to follow: “The program started in September of 2002 and is progressing very well as the trainees are being graduated after the completion of 105 weeks of theoretical and practical knowledge in the Accelerated Competency Based Drilling Technology Program at the school and the rigs. So far, nine trainees from the first batch have graduated and been deployed in the rigs as full-fledged Assistant Drillers, … the other 5 batches will follow in their footsteps to form a generation of graduates from the Drilling Practices School that make efficient hands in the drilling industry."

One such former trainee, Waleed Saeed Al Neaimi, who recently graduated with a degree in Petrochemical Engineering and is now a fulltime Assistant Driller praised the program: “ For 2 ½ years since joining this career development training course I gained a lot of beneficial information on a daily basis thanks to our experienced instructors…now I am working as an Assistant Driller and all of my supervisors are satisfied with my work. Now, I have a clear and promising future.”

The training provided by IHRDC supports Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), of which NDC is a wholly owned subsidiary, in achieving its stated objective of maximizing the percentage of UAE nationals in the workforce of ADNOC's group of companies.

About IHRDC
Headquartered in Boston with offices in Amsterdam, Cairo and Caracas, International Human Resources Development Corporation (IHRDC) is a privately owned company that has been providing highly regarded management, technical and operations training programs and competency-based e-Learning systems to the oil and gas industry for more than 35 years.

For more information on this project or others, please visit the website at www.ihrdc.com or contact:

Bradford Donohue
IHRDC - Boston
Director of Corporate Development
1-617-536-0202 ext. 2259

Ayman Meneassy
IHRDC - Cairo
Vice President, Middle East and Africa
20 2 519 7275