Today, the vast majority of well control training is done in the classroom. To receive an IADC Well Control certificate or IWCF certificate, students must take and retake well control training every few years. Roughnecks, roustabouts, and other junior rig personnel must re-take the IADC Introductory Well Control course every five years. Drillers, toolpushers, and other rig supervisors must re-take the IADC Supervisory Well Control course every two years. With the implementation of the new Well Control Institute, students may soon be required to maintain proficiency through continuing education units (CEUs) on an annular, quarterly, or perhaps even monthly basis!
With classroom courses, well control training is a massive burden on both the rig worker and his company. Every single time a rig worker needs to renew his IADC certificate, he must physically travel to a well control school. Many times, rigs are located far from any nearby well control school. Students must travel many miles away from their rigs or homes to complete their training. Imagine working offshore! Anytime workers need to renew their offshore training certification, they need to physically travel back to land and to a well control school- only to have to return in a week after their training is complete!
While this is a challenge in the US, it is an even greater challenge abroad. Imagine working on an offshore rig in Angola. Or Siberia. Or even in remote parts of Nigeria, India, and China. Often, many of these countries do not have any well control schools at all. Or they have very few, spaced far apart. As a result, an unreasonable amount of time must be spent on well control training. Or, more likely, training may just not take place at all. Talk about encouraging a poor drilling safety culture!
All of this travel is clearly a significant expense. However, in the oil field, the biggest expense is lost time. In this day and age of mobile technology, for a student to have to take an entire week away from the rig to retain well control certification is astounding. E-Learning has tried to solve some of these issues. However, existing CBT well control courses are only available on PCs; a severe limitation! In today’s world, almost everyone- especially the younger generation- spends all their time on the iPad, iPhone, and Android. We need a well control training solution that truly allows for learning anytime, anywhere.
Mobile Learning offered by LearnToDrill.com does exactly that! Our online well control school is accessible on tablet and smartphones devices, letting you truly learn from anywhere.
On the rig and have a few minutes off? Refresh Driller’s Method! Sitting at home relaxing on the couch? Take a quiz about Hydrostatic Pressure on your iPad. Traveling and really bored? What a great chance to learn about Gas Migration on your iPhone. Don’t have the time to travel 1000 miles to renew your IADC certificate? No worries, renew your certificate on your laptop! Everyone has- or will soon have- a smartphone or tablet. Why not embrace the future of learning? Anytime, Anywhere, on Any device.
Learn more about our courses at http://www.learntodrill.com/