CONTINUING
EDUCATION
ACCREDITED TRAINING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION Bringing accredited continuing education to the submarine cable industry BY KRISTIAN NIELSEN
O
n August 1, 2019, SubTel Forum was officially awarded the certification of Accredited Provider of Continuing Education and Training, a process that was first started some two and a half years earlier. “After a fairly grueling two and one-half years’ audit process, SubTel Forum is incredibly pleased to receive IACET accreditation, which allows us to provide continuing education to our submarine cable industry as a whole,” said Wayne Nielsen, President, in a press announcement made in early August.
WHAT MAKES IACET SO SPECIAL?
IACET Accredited Providers are a group of educators dedicated to quality in continuing education and training. All approved providers follow the ANSI/IACET Standard for Continuing Education and Training and have been thoroughly assessed by a third party, providing quality standard for their education. The International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) developed the original Continuing Education Unit (CEU) and today ensures that providers of continuing education and training can prove they provide high-quality instruction by following the ANSI/IACET Standard for Continuing Education and Training through a rigorous accreditation process. “We believe this may a first for our international industry; where accredited continuing education can be offered on any continent to industry personnel. As such, we are developing new training opportunities beginning in 4th Quarter of 2019,” said Nielsen. “Since 2001, it has been our goal to provide education to the submarine cable industry, and now with IACET accreditation, we are taking a leap forward to that end.” Using this new accreditation, we intend to design educational courses that can then appear at industry conferences around the world. Classes will be on a variety of topics dealing with key industry issues. Our aim, as with so many other avenues of SubTel Forum, is to bring another opportunity for education to market.
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
What differentiates this new training will be official, internationally recognized credits. What are we going to pursue for training? “Anything related to submarine cables,” said Nielsen. “It could be technical, business, or commercial.” To that end, we are partnering with industry innovators to bring the most current and ground-breaking techniques and tools. Our first training program, drawing on relationships and broad experience, will address Client Representation Standardization. SubTel Forum has partnered with Offshore Analysis & Research Solutions (OARS) to develop the training program. OARS, founded in 2007, is a staffing and training company survey consulting and data services company based in Houston, Texas. They specialize in offshore project services with a long history in oil & gas, submarine telecom, renewables, and hydrography. SubTel Forum and OARS are developing a rigorous training program designed to standardize the approach and reporting of client representation during the implementation of submarine cable systems. The course will broadly outline standards, QC methods, procedures, and best practices for: • Geomatics and positioning correction methods • Geophysical imagery collection and analysis • Hydrographic processing and quality control • Reporting and documentation • HSE offshore We are incredibly proud to partner with OARS for this effort, we believe that their experience and approach will bring a tremendous training program to market For now, watch this space, more news on how to apply and attend will follow in the next issue of SubTel Forum Magazine! STF