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Project Submission: HSE Improvement Plan
In May 2021, construction work began in Norway at Aker Solutions’ Dommersnes site for a floating offshore wind project. Shortly after work began, it was clear that HSSE performance was beginning to decline and safety behavior was not meeting expectations, which resulted in multiple incidents. The challenging construction schedule brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the contributing factors.
Fundamental rethinking was needed to simplify work processes to ensure that safety standards would improve. A decision was made by the project management team to give all personnel an extended break at the end of 2021, to focus on their health and wellbeing. The management team assessed the situation and worked with the project team leaders to develop a HSSE improvement plan.
The improvement plans included team-building and leadership workshops, HSSE awareness and communication programs (in Norwegian, English, and Polish), and the following initiatives were developed and rolled out:
The outcome of these initiatives delivered a measurable improvement in the use of safe systems of work, with safety in execution. Construction work was completed on time, with improved HSSE performance, which was recognized by senior management and by the end customer.
Project Submission: Women-Centered Safety Initiative
A leading geo-data specialist, Fugro has supported over 50 percent of offshore wind projects globally, including 26 projects in the U.S. This work is being accomplished by an increasingly diversified workforce. Its U.S. operation teams, for instance, now routinely encompass more women than ever before working both on and offshore.
With the rise in Fugro’s female workforce and their feedback, they recognized a need to address the gender-based safety challenges that exist for women. The Woman-Centered Safety Initiative was launched in Fugro’s U.S. offices in early 2022 to prioritize the health and safety of all employees, both in the field and the office. It is organized around three main categories of structural safety barriers to women: inadequate PPE, inadequate quartering, and unsuitable equipment
Fugro’s new employee-led, woman-centered safety initiative addresses “The Big Three” identified structural safety challenges that hinder women’s entry, retention, and advancement in our male-dominated field. The initiative started in the U.S. and is a model for change within the offshore wind industry at large. Helen Stewart, a hydrographer based in Houston, and Darren Male, who leads our health, safety, security, and environment (HSSE) team in the Americas have led this effort, which will benefit not only the women of Fugro, but women in all the industries we serve, including offshore wind.
Project Submission: Adaptive Learning Model
Today’s education and training systems are not keeping up with the current demands for skills, let alone new demands the near future will bring. For years, and even more so in a post-pandemic environment, eLearning has been a tool for companies that need an efficient way to educate or maintain compliance and competence for their workforce. However, traditional eLearning in isolation is not maximizing the true potential of learning via a digital platform. Adaptive Learning s a technology-based approach to learning that can close this gap.
Adaptive learning combines theories of optimal learning with the capabilities of algorithms and computers. The study material simply adapts to the learner, ensuring that time is spent on the subjects that need the most attention. This significantly boosts the efficiency of the overall learning process. At the same time, the process reveals blind spots, perhaps unknown even to the learner, that are critical to address, i.e., safety and response procedures.
Since adoption at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in June 2021, this approach has been proven to reduce time to mastery up to 50%. This time savings increases once refreshers are considered, occurring on a two-year cycle per Global Wind Organisation (GWO) standards. The adaptive learning platform not only decreases time spent on theoretical training, but it also highlights knowledge gaps and memory decay by collecting in-depth data on each delegate’s actual knowledge compared to their perceived knowledge. Having such insights about the workforce can be crucial for situations where safety is critical. Moreover, in the practical part of the training, instructors have access to the detailed learner data, and can therefore adjust the delivery based on the most challenging learning objectives for the specific group.
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At the Oceantic Network, formerly known as the Business Network for Offshore Wind, our driving purpose is to inform, coordinate, and mobilize human ingenuity, enterprise, and labor to take advantage of the urgent need to tap the vast renewable energy resources that lie offshore in the world’s oceans. The collective, coordinated efforts of our members equip communities and nations to accelerate the transition to clean energy and create economic opportunities.
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