Offshore training firm Petans delivers fulfilling careers

“Petans is well known for delivering quality-driven training, and we attribute much of our success to our staff,” said business manager Andie Marshall.

“A lot of our work is repeat business, and we are proud to still have delegates who remember training with us when it all began at the Norwich site back in the mid-80s.”

Andie Marshall, business manager at Petans (Image: Petans) Petans has a small team of 20 permanent staff and a further 36 who work for the company on a more casual basis, with the majority of these being instructors.

“Due to the constraints regarding vocational experience, most of our training team have firefighting experience,” said Andie. “This could be from serving with the fire service either on a permanent or a part-time basis, or they may have completed a firefighting role in the armed forces or at an airport.”

As well as the obvious skillset they bring, Petans’ instructors contribute by using several transferable skills and usually have experience in dealing with the public.

“Using safety-based professionals makes perfect sense to us as it means they have a natural passion for safety and emergency response,” said Andie.

She added that the company’s staff turnover rate is very low.

“Over 25pc of our staff have more than 10 years’ service, and three of our full-time employees have worked at Petans for over or close to 20 years.

“We hope this is a sign that people enjoy working here.”

Spencer Brown

Spencer Brown joined Petans over 19 years ago and is now one of four full-time instructors.

Originally, he worked as one of the company’s support technicians, helping the instructors in setting up and delivering courses to Petans’ delegates.

“Over the years, Spencer has completed various qualifications and courses,” said Andie, “He is able to teach across all disciplines.”

Spencer Brown is one of Petans' four full-time instructors (Image: Petans)

Chris Watering

Chris Watering is Petans’ longest serving part-time instructor, starting back in the early 1990s. This was when the company’s training was completed across different sites in Norwich, Oulton Broad and Lowestoft.

“Chris has seen a lot of change as safety, training and technological developments have led to improvements in things like personal protective equipment (PPE)”, said Andie.

“When he first joined Petans, only the fire training – including a helicopter fire prop and helideck – was completed at our Norwich site. From old photos we can see that PPE back then was a rubber suit.

“It wasn’t until 1995 that the site expanded with the building of our swimming pool, and the inclusion of our helicopter safety training. This enabled us to complete all basic survival training at the one site in Norwich.”

Kevin Kibble-White

Catering manager Kevin Kibble-White has been providing Petans staff and delegates with hot lunches for over 26 years.

“Kev worked offshore before joining Petans, and some of our delegates remember him from when he worked on the Conoco Viking rigs off the coast at Lincolnshire Bravo, and at the interconnector when it was being built,” said Andie.

“We always get great comments about the food that is provided to our delegates.”

Catering manager Kevin Kibble-White (Image: Petans)

Kirsty Hawkins

Kirsty Hawkins joined Petans’ course administration team straight from school at the age of 16, completing a level 3 apprenticeship with the company.

“Back then everything was done via fax, telephone and email with automated systems coming several years later,” said Andie.

“Our industry has a number of complexities, so Kirsty’s role is technical and tends to be quite varied,” she added.

“She is a very valued member of our team with heaps of knowledge about the courses we deliver and the strict rules that govern them.”

For more information, please visit petans.co.uk, email info@petans.co.uk or call 01603 891255.