Gulf Construction Online - SKZ expands to provide region-wide training

UAE Focus

Delegates at Geosynthetics Middle East.

SKZ expands to provide region-wide training

01 January 2013

Buoyed by its success in training more than 500 certified HDPE (high-density polyethylene) pipe welders since its inception in 2008, SKZ the German Plastics Center has spread its wings. Not only is the centre in Jebel Ali, Dubai, attracting trainees from as far away as Australia, South Africa and the Philippines as well as Saudi Arabia and India, SKZ’s trainers are available to travel around the world to deliver training according to the German DVGW GW 330 standard for basic welders and GW 331 for supervisors.

In fact Fabian Beermann, division manager at BMC Gulf, SKZ’s partner for the Middle East and Africa region, reports that resident trainer Benedikt Reith, who is based in the UAE since 2011, is currently in Algeria to deliver a GW330 training programme directly at a client’s project site.

Beermann first came to the UAE late in 2007 and was immediately struck by the lack of training and expertise shown by contractors dealing with multi-million-dollar HDPE piping projects. “When I came over to the UAE in November 2007, I was hired to build up BMC’s division for plastic welding technology which was mainly thermoplastic piping systems for the water and gas industry,” he explained. “You had the authorities trying to write high specifications for materials but when the materials arrived on site I witnessed many cases of wrong welding and pipe installation. They were welding in ways I have never seen before – really a bad performance.”

“It was obvious that we – I – had to educate the market somehow,” he continued, “and being a German I automatically looked back home and asked what were the standards in place and why we didn’t have those problems there.”

The problem was a lack of expertise at the consultant and contractor level. The solution was expert training, delivered by a third-party institute that dealt with vocational training. Thus began BMC’s enduring relationship with SKZ, the biggest service supplier for the plastic industry in Europe, which was doing the certification of pipe welding for plastic pipes for the German gas and water association, DVGW.

“We started the cooperation with SKZ, because we needed to get someone over here that was specialised in transferring knowledge and conducting proper examinations to ensure they [the trainees] can do the job,” he said.

Hands-on ... classroom instructions in the morning are followed by practical exercises in the afternoon.

To date, the centre has certified more than 500 welders. The five-day courses cost $1,900 per trainee and feature classroom instruction in the morning followed by practical exercises in the afternoons on a wide variety of samples, fixtures and welding machinery available in the market.

Meanwhile, Geosynthetics Middle East, the conference that places Abu Dhabi firmly on the world map as a leading meeting place for geotechnical and environment specialists, is the latest – and perhaps the most high profile – initiative of SKZ Germany to raise the standards and knowledge of personnel involved in infrastructure projects in the Middle East.
“SKZ also runs seminars on plastics in general and the question was asked ‘why don’t we do a seminar on geosynthetics?’ because there were many people in the market missing the latest updates and information on that technology,” Beermann explained.

“The idea was to have a seminar that was science based with practical hands-on information but not the typical seminars you see here which are basically conducted by companies trying to sell their products,” Beermann continued.
The idea blossomed and the first conference took place in 2007 with an encouraging 30 or so delegates attending. “We had several professors from universities and so it was interesting but people also enjoyed the networking and said we should do it every year and have more people attending,” he said.

The number practically doubled for the second event in 2009 and then for 2010 Beermann decided to involve the whole quality chain from the raw materials suppliers, the designers and consultants all the way through to the contractors on site. Abu Dhabi Municipality became interested “because they use a lot of these products – in any project or structure you normally have some geosynthetics involved for reinforcement, containment and so on,” and the delegate count rose to 300. The addition of Borouge as the Platinum sponsor in 2011 projected the event to worldwide status.

In 2012 another milestone was achieved with the invitation of local engineering students from the Higher Colleges of Technology and Abu Dhabi University. “We realised we needed to involve the future generation of engineers as well. It is brilliant for future engineers to interact with the industry and have worldwide experts available in Abu Dhabi. They get a feeling of where they can direct their studies and what field of industry to go into at a later stage and can even find their future employer there,” Beermann concludes.