By Manos Kouvakis
CEDIFOP director
The new CEDIFOP course for “underwater technical operator - underwater welder” started on June 2 in Palermo. Enrolled students, besides Sicilians, come from Campania, Emilia Romagna and foreign countries like Cyprus, Greece and Tunisia.
The course can be described as an “intership” (following the OTS course of CEDIFOP) held in a company operating in the area, and it provides 18 technical dives and 2 training days in hyperbaric chamber, to fulfill the international training standards on immersion and skiing times and water activities as listed in IDSA (International Diving Schools Association) teaching parameters about Scuba and Surface activities (0-30 meters - diving from surface) and for the attainment of the 2 level “Inshore Air Diver”.
The only students allowed to to attend the program are those ones already equipped with OTS qualification, awarded by current IDSA full member schools, or students who have successfully completed a 4 days assessment at the same CEDIFOP.
It must be emphasized that all CEDIFOP courses comply with international training standards about immersion and skiing times and water activities provided by the aforementioned IDSA teaching parameters. Moreover, concerning the level of the required qualification, CEDIFOP being an IMCA member (Division for Europe and Africa Diving), we can consider the courses to be in line with IMCA (International Marine Contractors Association) guidance documents (IMCA D 015 Mobile/Portable Surface Supplied System,IMCA D 023 Diving Equipment Systems Inspection Guidance Note for Surface Orientated Diving System-Air), therefore fulfilling also the requirements from ENI SpA document dating to August 5 2013 (“Requirements HSE for suppliers of underwater work”).
Three basic types of international standards must be fulfilled at the same time in order to ensure underwater activities in construction sites -both inshore and offshore- to be professionally safely and optimally managed, namely: IDSA, IMCA, HSE (all of them being the base of CEDIFOP training for years).
We find the same provision also in the the bill n. 2751 (“Discipline of work activities diving and hyperbaric”) presented to the Chamber of Deputies by the Emilia Romagna elected congresswoman Deborah Bergamini, Vice President of the IX parliamentary committee (Transport, Post and Telecommunications) and Chairman of the standing committee on foreign policy and external relations of the European Union.
So states the bill: “We must aknowledge that labor market and territorial area operated by the industrial diver (considered as a professional figure) go beyond regional and national limits, and therefore, in order to support the mobility of persons, the training courses developed in this field have to follow the path indicated by the rules of professional and industrial training.
While the Institute for the development of workers' professional training (ISFOL) regulates the necessary skills of port area operators on the Italian territory, the adoption of a teaching plan for required training in offshore field should comply with three internationally accepted standards, namely:
1) training standards set by the International Diving Schools Association (IDSA), the only international teaching association in industrial diving area (there are several educational parameters in sport area, like PADI ,CMAS, SSI and others). Also worth noting that national training courses, such as those from the United States of America or Canada, always refer to the teaching parameters set by IDSA. This Association has drew up a worldwide series of inshore and offshore training rules, according to its own experience over the past 40 years and inferred from the different schools enrolled in the association all over the world;
2) yards operational standards (set by the International Marine Contractors Association – IMCA), as is the case for the above mentioned legislation UNI 11366 on safety and health protection in industrial diving and professional hyperbaric activities at the service of industry - operating procedures;
3) safety standards set by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) such as for example British HSE rules.
Only the correct application of these standards may ensure a greater international spendability to the Italian diver qualification, bringing the category up to the level it deserves, in consideration of the history and the skills characterizing it.”
"The same register of divers - we read on in the Bergamini bill - must be divided into several categories, depending on the training and competence of the member, as it happens in other countries providing rules for safety and for the professionalism of the field. As an italian exemple, we can refer to model proposed by ENI Spa, providing rules similar to those existing in the rest of the world.”
The only italian governement regulation dates back to 1982 and it barely applies to activities within port areas. Such a situation penalizes Italian titles on the IMCA dominated international arena, since IMCA (International Marine Contractors Association) recognizes only those countries offering an offshore diving legislation and territorial control rules (currently missing in Italy).
Italy could fill this gap in her legislation, after the adoption of the bill n. 698 (providing “rules on the recognition and training standards in the field of industrial diving activities”) currently debated in front of the Sicilian Parliament.
This bill makes provision for offshore areas - Article 2.4, b appling also to “.. no-territorial maritime waters (i.e. offshore), when the above activities are connected to regional interests, or to national people and companies."
Territorial control will be enforced with the registration of every activity in the Regional Labor Department register. The registration will be provided on a three level scale: Inshore Air Diver / Level 1 (up to - 30 meters), Offshore Air Diver / level 2 (from - 30 to - 50 meters) and Offshore Diver Sat / level 3 (activities beyond - 50 meters).
Registration will be granted to all those having faced special training programs.
As specified by article 5.3 and article 6.2, these training programs "... must comply with the internationally recognized IDSA (International Diving Schools Association) standards). In so far as they concern those subjects operating in the activities provided for at artcle 2.3, the training programs must comply with the standards set by the UNI 11366 (“Standards for safety and health protection in professional and industrial diving and hyperbaric activities” and the checks to be carried out to comply with obligations and general HSE (Health Safety and Environment) requirements, as settled in the IMCA guide lines .
In this way, the Sicilian “pass” granted to the registerd activities, will then be directly spendable on the international market of offshore installations, promoting Sicily to Italian and Mediterranean landmark in this strategic and important sector of industrial diving activities.
The above quoted bill will be signed soon into law by the Parliament of Sicily (note that Sicily is an autonomous region ruled by its owna special act and having its own parliament called “Sicilian Regional Assembly”), and it will also provide a regulation model for all those countries currently uncovered by the IMCA D05/15 Document (which covers only those countries already having a legislation such as the one Italy is going to bild up, thanks to Sicily).
Currently, these countries are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and in Europe: Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, France and UK with its own British HSE certification standard, quite similar to the one proposed for Italy in the impending Sicilian bill.
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