The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani inaugurating the Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety College in Ras Laffan Industrial City yesterday.
DOHA: The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani inaugurated the Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety College (RLESC), a premier emergency and safety training academy designed to provide advanced training to fire fighters and emergency responders, in Ras Laffan yesterday.
RLESC is a partnership and collaboration between Qatar Petroleum and the Ministry of Interior and would provide advanced training to professionals in the oil, gas, petrochemical, civil defence, civil and military aviation, and other sectors in Qatar, Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
The training partner and provider of Emergency Training at RLESC is Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX). TEEX is internationally acclaimed in the area of advanced practical emergency and safety training. Majority of the RLESC Emergency Training courses are accredited by the National Board on fire Service Professional Qualifications ‘ProBoard’, of the United States.
RLESC will start with 32 training courses in fire emergency and safety, industrial fire fighting, search and rescue, hazardous materials, emergency medical services, and civil defence and aviation, and will extend to 50 courses in health, safety and environment and public safety.
Initially the academy will recruit people working for institutions and later would admit individuals too.
The opening ceremony was attended by attended by H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada the Minister of Energy and Industry; H E Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali Al Hammadi, the Minister of Education and Higher Education, and H E Jassim Al Sulaiti, the Minister of Transport along with several other dignitaries.
“RLESC is aimed at raising the level of local and regional capabilities in public safety and emergency management, which makes it one of the most important initiatives in this field,” said Dr Al Sada addressing a press conference held following RLESC inauguration.
“We wanted to bring the best here. The training modules are taught with high techniques.
“The college will serve the industrial sector from its location in the world’s biggest natural gas liquefaction site,” he added.
A memorandum of understanding will be signed with the University of New Haven (UNH), Connecticut in the US offering diplomas and a four-year degree in the fire safety management and fire protection engineering, according to Dr Al Sada.
UNH is a private institution that was founded in 1920; the university offers about 80 undergraduate majors and 30 masters programmes. UNH is renowned for providing its students with highly recognised degrees in fire science and emergency management.
A study plan is expected to be signed in the second quarter of 2014 and the academic studies to start by September next year at the RLESC.
“RLESC is designed to be an advanced training facility, serving not only our constituents in Qatar, but the greater Middle East as well as Asia and North Africa Region. The College is a testament of our resolve to become a hallmark of emergency safety training,” said Khalid Al Ansari, Manager of Ras Laffan Emergency & Safety College.
“The primary aim of RLESC is to train emergency and safety professionals in a variety of functional areas, thereby empowering the workforce of the modern Qatari economy,” added Al Ansari.
Applicants can enrol in single training courses in specific field of study where the duration varies from three days to 12 weeks.
RLESC will initially offer training and courses in fire emergency and safety, industrial fire fighting, search and rescue, hazardous materials, emergency medical services, and civil defence and aviation, while additional courses in health, safety and environment, public safety, and business community will further enrich its subject list at a later stage.
Currently, RLESC has begun a joint field-research in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which is being supervised by Texas A&M University at Qatar by with support from British Petroleum. RLESC features some of the most advanced equipment at teaching facilities of this kind. Industrial props have been procured specifically for the on- and off-shore oil and gas industry, while those for civil defence training feature a high-rise building, a commercial building, a villa, a cinema, a shopping centre, a warehouse and forensics investigation structures. The props for search and rescue training boast a confined space as well as a ‘collapsed’ building.
The Peninsula
