Lloyd’s Register (LR) and MatPal Marine Institute Inc., an ISO 9001:2015 maritime and oil and gas education training and support centre and the ‘satellite’ of the Panama Maritime Training Services Inc., have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly support safe maritime training in Guyana, a growing market for the oil and gas industry.
As part of the MoU, MatPal will promote and host LR training courses in its training centre.
Training courses will include Ship Emergency Response Service (SERS), Risk Management and Incident Investigation and Practical Approach to Ship Surveys, amongst others.
The MoU will focus on local content development in Guyana and support oil and gas companies to navigate requirements in the Region.
This follows recent plans by the Guyana Government to equip 4,000 young people with the necessary technical and vocational skills to help employment, as it earmarks $448.5 million to advance the work of the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
Kevin Humphreys, LR’s President for the Americas, said: “This Memorandum of Understanding with MatPal demonstrates our commitment to supporting local content development in Guyana as the region experiences significant growth in the oil and gas sector. LR and MatPal share the same goal which is to properly prepare seafarers and other maritime personnel in Guyana.”
Coleen Abrams, Chief Executive Officer of MatPal Marine Institute Inc., hailed this as a “landmark achievement that will unequivocally boost the level and scope of maritime and oil and gas training offered to Guyanese and in direct response to the clarion call for the building of local content capacity and capability within Guyana.”
Lloyd’s Register (LR) is a global professional services organisation specialising in engineering and technology solutions. Their experts advise and support clients to improve the safety and performance of complex projects, supply chains and critical infrastructure.
LR was created more than 260 years ago as the world’s first marine classification society to improve the safety of ships. Today, they operate globally providing compliance, assurance and performance solutions to help keep the world moving safely, efficiently and sustainably.
Its maritime business is a leading provider of classification, compliance and advisory services to the marine and offshore industries, helping clients design, construct and operate their assets to the highest levels of safety and performance. They are also expanding our portfolio of risk and advisory, commercial efficiency, vessel performance and voyage optimisation services to unlock and drive growth for our clients while also investing in the launch, build and scale of forward-looking maritime digital solutions, expanding its suite of products and services including Cloud Fleet Manager and i4 Insight.
Meanwhile, MatPal Marine Institute Inc. , an incorporated maritime education and training entity, was established twenty-two years ago on 5 October 1999. Through the years, they have experienced the growth and increase in persons requiring training and more so with the emergence of the offshore oil and gas industry, training numbers surpass three hundred (300) industry-ready Seafarers annually. MatPal was ideally placed to up its ante and provide expanded and improved training programmes, that enable Guyanese to successfully enter the country’s booming oil and gas sector.
The creation of effective synergies plus the achievement of ISO certification, contributes significantly to the overall image of MatPal as the go-to Institute for maritime and oil and gas training.
With its exemplary history of “promoting excellence through maritime training”, MatPal is known for preparing Seafarers for a wide range of career opportunites in the maritime and oil and gas industry in both the local and regional territories.
