Commercial Diving Q&A

April 11th, 2012 by The Underwater Centre

“I’m interested in commercial diving. I’m from Australia and I would be undertaking the training at Tasmania. Is it very difficult to find work if you do all the training to ADAS 3 but with no trade background? What’s the pay like in Australia in the first year on being employed as a commercial diver and what will it be like in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year?”

“There has currently been an upsurge of employment opportunities in the commercial diver industry in and around Australia and for the whole of the Australasia region in fact. This offers an unprecedented opportunity for new divers to break into the commercial diving industry. A couple of our recently completed courses at the end of last year saw 100% employment directly from and within a couple of weeks on completion of the course. This is a great sign of a healthy commercial diving industry.

“However, while I wish I could guarantee that you would gain employment I feel it only honest to state that, as in any industry, the individual looking for employment will be a deciding factor in securing employment.

“The commercial diving industry can be a difficult arena to enter without the determination and patience of the person who is seeking employment within this field. Those who have a realistic approach, i.e. looking to gain experience in the industry at any level and continuously strive toward this goal, will find their determination rewarded.

“We do assist our students in their search for employment and as part of our service to newly qualified divers, we will provide you with an introduction and interview with the biggest recruiters of divers within the aquaculture industry – Tassal Group Ltd and Huon Aquaculture Co Pty Ltd.

“As an additional service to all our graduates, we also offer a CV service – provided by our sister school in Fort William. Once you complete your course with us, we will post your CV to The Underwater Centre’s website for 8 weeks. During that time, contractors looking for divers will be able to view all the CVs listed on the site and contact those it thinks will suit the role best. Again this is a unique service we offer, along with our Fort William Centre, which you won’t get from anyone else. This is another great way to help you get that all-important first job.

“We will also provide you with a directory of all worldwide Diving and ROV contractors, which you can use to contact these companies directly – contacting them regarding job opportunities or just getting your name known within the company.

Other points to consider:

  • Students can improve their chances for employment by having a trade background or by adding speciality courses to their training. Courses such as DMT or Wet Welding to name a few, these will help you to stand out to a prospective employer as many employers look beyond the diving qualifications to see what other skills the candidate will bring to their work-place.
  • A part 2 diver (Inshore only) can earn from $250 to $600 per day, however, the employment opportunities for this level can be exceeded by those of a part 3 diver. A part 3 diver (Offshore) can earn around $1,300.00+ per day in the Australian Offshore industry. Offshore overseas work could see that amount exceeded!
  • Most diving work is undertaken on a contractual basis. The duration and amount of pay, time off etc., are governed by the Company offering the contract and also the type of work needing to be undertaken for the contract.

Jenny Ellis

Student Advisor

The Underwater Centre, Tasmania

If you have a question for our Student Advisors in Fort William or Tasmania, leave a comment.

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Posted in Diving, Industry Expertise
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Oil and Gas Jobs Boost

April 4th, 2012 by The Underwater Centre

Hays recently revealed that UK oil and gas professionals are enjoying competitive wages according to ‘The Oil and Gas Salary Guide 2012’.

The Guide, produced by Hays Oil & Gas and Oil and Gas Job Search, shows that full time UK oil professionals enjoy average salaries of GBP £55,850 per annum, which is more than twice the national salary average of GBP £26,244.

This supports recent research undertaken by The Underwater Centre, Fort William, surveying graduates from its HSE Closed Bell Course (also know as mixed gas or saturation diving).  The research showed that, from those that responded to the survey, the average earnings were GBP £101,615. The research also showed that, on average, 67% of students were working in saturation, and it had taken approximately 3 months from completing the course at The Underwater Centre, to getting their first saturation diving job.

Nathan McColeman chose to do The Underwater Centre’s HSE Closed Bell Course as he believed it would allow him to get the offshore job that he wanted, ‘I wanted to go deeper and broaden my horizons in the process, and with the training received I will be able to do the job properly.’

In the recent UK Budget, the Chancellor announced a package of tax measures which will stimulate investment in further oil and gas exploration in the UK, boosting the subsea jobs market and increasing the potential for employment and earnings in this sector.

Read more about the booming oil and gas jobs marketing in this article from Monday’s Press and Journal Energy Supplement.

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Posted in Diving, Industry Expertise, Mixed Gas
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The Budget and the Oil Industry

March 27th, 2012 by The Underwater Centre

The chancellor described his Budget of 20th March 2012 as ‘an advertisement for investment and jobs in Britain’. As far as the oil and gas industry is concerned, the new measures represent good news in terms of future investment and employment prospects.

Budget documents submitted by Osborne said the government will submit legislation outlining the decommissioning approach and “extending the amount and scope of the existing small-field allowance, introducing a new-field allowance targeted at the West of Shetland area, and introducing primary legislation to allow the potential introduction of measures to support investment in brown fields.”

The upshot of the Chancellor’s new measures will result in a doubling tax breaks for developing smaller oil and gas fields and introducing a £3bn allowance for some deepwater fields with significant reserves in the new exploration frontier West of Shetland.

What this means is that the life of some current fields is likely to be extended, some fields that weren’t economically viable to develop now can be developed and larger projects, like the BP project North West of Shetland are much more attractive. In the long-term, the field allowance package could eventually lead to £10bn of investment that would not otherwise have happened.

The new measures could well be a turning point for the UK’s oil and gas industry resulting in a much more stable future based on constructive collaboration between the government and the oil and gas industry. The move on decommissioning is likely to delay decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure, which could give rise, over time, to up to £40 billion of extra investment (in addition to the £10bn of new investment) and result in the recovery of up to 1.7 billion bbl of oil and gas.

Peter Buchanan, chairman of oil explorers’ association Brindex, said: “We have pretty much got what we were seeking as an industry. The Chancellor has moved a long way, reversing the tax implications from last year.”

BP, which is active in the West of Shetland field, also welcomed the moves. Centrica, which operates elsewhere in the North Sea, said the Budget gave “much-needed encouragement for Britain’s energy industry”.

Derek Henderson, head of tax at Deloitte, also welcomed the move on decommissioning, which his firm estimates could cost the UK North Sea producing industry £50 billion over the next 30 years.

Henderson said: “This will remove a major fiscal risk for UK North Sea investors and may release significant funds for investment by allowing companies to move to post-tax decommissioning guarantees. This will also free up capital available for investment and development of opportunities in the North Sea. This activity boost should also increase the tax take for government.”

What are your thoughts on the UK Chancellors announcement?  Leave a comment and let us know.

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Retraining as an ROV Pilot Tech: Don Etchells

March 26th, 2012 by The Underwater Centre

There aren’t many people whose career achievements have involved retrieving a stranded unmanned submarine from the bottom of the Black Sea, but for Teesside man, Don Etchells, it was just another day at the office.  Don tells us about why he chose to train as an ROV pilot technician and about the kind of jobs he’s been working on since he graduated:

State of the art video cameras and sonar are his eyes and he uses complex robotic arms and specially designed tools to carry out all sorts of operations for the oil, gas and telecommunications industries. ROVs come in all shapes and sizes; some will fit into a small suitcase whilst others, such as the ones Don is used to flying, can be the size of a truck.

He was working as an ROV pilot technician off the coast of Russia, carrying out a range of different jobs, from surveying a newly laid pipeline to constructing a new rig, when an emergency call came in about the stranded sub off the coast of Turkey.

Using his specialist skills, he played an important role in successfully recovering the unmanned sub, which had lost power. With price tags that stretch to tens of millions of pounds, having to abandon the downed submersible would have been crippling to its owners.

Don’s desire to retrain as an ROV pilot tech two years ago led him to Fort William, where he enrolled in a course with The Underwater Centre.  When he was made redundant from his job in the automotive industry, he decided to look for a career with a more sustainable future. After extensive research, he opted for the oil and gas sector, deciding to specialise in ROVs. He took up the opportunity to spend a day at The Underwater Centre, where he had a look at the facilities, met the instructors and had a go at flying one of the centre’s fleet of ROVs before signing up for the facility’s intensive three week ROV Pilot Technician course.

Since leaving the Centre, Don has also worked in the Arctic Circle and the North Atlantic on a cable maintenance ship, burying fibre optic cables beneath the seabed for the international communications industry.

Don believes that the course at The Underwater Centre was an excellent launch pad for a career as an ROV pilot: “Retraining is a big decision to make so I did a lot of research. What I loved about The Underwater Centre is the realistic and industry relevant environment which students benefit from.  Some ROV schools train in quarries where the water is still but at The Underwater Centre, we get to fly in Loch Linnhe so we experience different currents and levels of visibility which tests your flying skills and navigation skills around the worksite which is invaluable.

“Being an ROV pilot tech is a fantastic career. Each day is different, varied and interesting. I get to travel overseas and meet a range of different nationalities. The pay is great and, whilst I do work away, it also gives me good time off in between jobs.

“My automotive background meant that I had the expertise and skills suitable to becoming an ROV pilot tech. My only regret is that I didn’t do it 20 years sooner.”

Are you looking to change career?  Do you have any questions for Don?  Leave a comment and let us know.

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Posted in Past student, ROV
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Saturation Diver: Craig Hackett

March 19th, 2012 by The Underwater Centre

As the oil and gas industry continues on its current trend of massive investment, creating work and opportunities for commercial divers world wide, saturation divers in the Southern Hemisphere are now commanding salaries of up to AUS $1400 a day.  Craig Hackett, who did his ADAS Part 4 Closed Bell course with us in 2009, tells us about his career as a saturation diver.

“I was brought up in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, and after completing 3 years secondary school, I joined the army at 17.  I stayed in the army full time for 4 years, and then in the reserves for 2 years.  During that time I travelled in Australia, Asia and Europe.  I returned to New Zealand and joined the Navy, where I completed my ADAS Parts 1, 2 and 3 with the New Zealand operational dive team.

“The challenges of the clearance diver course was my original reason for beginning to dive.  I was then attracted to the commercial diving industry when I heard of the money that could be made in that sector.  Ultimately I was looking for money and travel; I’ve found both.

“Completing the ADAS Part 4 Closed Bell course at The Underwater Centre, Tasmania, has been one of the best investments in my life.  You will learn the basics of working and diving from a saturation dive system and how to operate it, the rest you’ll pick up once you’re on the job.  You won’t get on the job without the certificate though.   I found the senior instructors to have a wealth of knowledge, the physics teacher was excellent.  I’ve never really fully grasped physics on my previous dive courses but found he explained it really well.

“I mainly work now as a saturation diver, but I still do some work as an air diver too.  I am currently working in Papua New Guinea.  As well as the money side of things, I love the travel aspect of my work, plus the time off you get.  Some of the long trips (3 months plus) can get a bit tiring though.

“As a sat diver in Asia you can earn $1000-$1400 USD a day, depending on the company’s rates.  To work in Asia, it is best to go to there and go to the companies in person. It took me a month to find a company willing to take on someone without offshore experience.  It will happen though, you just have to be patient.  I’ve heard of people getting jobs via e mails and phone calls, but to have the best chance I would recommend going to Singapore.

“It can be very tough to get a break in the commercial diving industry, but with no risk you’ll never get there.  Doing the sat course has opened up doors for me, for things that would never have been possible otherwise, and I earn more money than I ever thought I would be able to.  I’m very grateful for what I’ve got from completing the sat course and from this industry.”

Would you like to work as a saturation diver?  Have you got experiences of working in the Southern Hemisphere on sat?  Leave a comment and let us know.

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Posted in Diving, Mixed Gas, Past student
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