Streamlined operations, improved efficiencies, reduced costs and cutting-edge training technology are just some of the benefits oil and gas giant, Bilfinger Salamis, is enjoying thanks to a unique partnership agreement with AIS Training. 

Two years ago, and in the depths of the biggest oil and gas downturn in recent history, Bilfinger Salamis was looking to make greater efficiencies across its business. 

As well as its core operation of providing skilled personnel to operate, maintain and decommission offshore oil and gas platforms and wind farms, the company owned and ran a Skills Centre in the Bridge of Don in Aberdeen, where its 1800 offshore workers and 200 onshore staff received any specialist training required.

In addition to training its own staff, Bilfinger Salamis also offered commercial courses to external companies in skills such as scaffolding, painting and blasting and working at height.
When the oil and gas recession hit, Bilfinger Salamis decided to go back to basics and concentrate on its core offer of specialist offshore support services.

Mike Henderson, commercial and business development director at Bilfinger Salamis explains: “Although we had successfully run our own skills centre for many years, the centre needed investment to upgrade facilities and extend our course portfolio. Rather than do this, we decided to outsource our training to an external provider we could trust. 

“In 2016 we signed a five-year training management service (TMS) agreement with AIS Training to manage all of our staff training requirements throughout the UK. 

“The efficiencies were immediate. AIS Training took over the running of our training centre and transferred all of our existing training staff onto its books. Very quickly after this, AIS invested in a brand-new, state-of-the-art training facility in the Westhill area of the city, featuring the very latest learning environments and cutting-edge technologies. The company’s training portfolio was significantly larger than ours and so instantly offered our personnel access to more than 400 industry-approved courses. 

“As well as having access to a much greater range of training in one place, our staff were also able to use AIS Training’s other training centres across the UK including two state-of-the-art facilities in Newcastle and Grimsby with more centres planned in the future. This meant our people could be trained at whichever centre was closest to them, reducing unnecessary travel and related costs. 

“The cost savings were significant. We benefitted from a reduction of 18% on direct course bookings and this was in addition to logistical and staffing savings. 

“Working with AIS Training has streamlined many of our internal processes. Beforehand, we had to deal with a range of training companies to deliver training that couldn’t be delivered in-house. This could be time-consuming and logistically complex.” 

Gavin Taylor, Group Commercial Director at AIS, said: “The service we offer Bilfinger Salamis utilises our unique software which helps companies maximise their training budgets.

“The Training Management Service (TMS) is scalable to any size workforce and substantially reduces the amount of time and cost involved in managing competencies. As well as allowing instant online course bookings, AIS’s TMS Software provides worldwide mobile enabled access in real-time to skills records and training information. Individuals’ current certificates are stored online and the system sends automatic alerts to ensure critical certificates never expire. Meanwhile the system forecasts budgetary demands based on training matrices and certificate renewal dates.

“TMS also provides a training matrix for every individual, mapping job roles against skills and training requirements. This allows people to view their career progression routes and the core skills and training needed for every role. 

“Alongside TMS, AIS Training provides Bilfinger Salamis with a dedicated project manager and bookings team to handle everything from course bookings to arranging transport and accommodation – this saves them invaluable time and resources.”