PDO to provide school staff in Oman health and safety training

Muscat: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has signed an agreement to impart Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) training to staff members at schools in its concession area.
The one-month programme, which is being run in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, will assign an experienced Arabic-speaking HSE adviser to coach teachers and assistants on potential safety hazards and the correct procedures for dealing with them.
Contractors Galfar Engineering and Contracting SAOG and Special Technical Services and Tebodin (STS and Tebodin) LLC will provide the training free of charge under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
PDO External Affairs and Value Creation Director Abdul-Amir Abdul-Hussein Al Ajmi said: “Safety and corporate social responsibility are key priorities for PDO and we want to create a positive safety culture across our concession area, as well as ensure that schoolchildren are as safe as they can be.
“The trainers will educate school staff on the hazards and risks in and around their buildings in a clear and concise way. We thank our partners at Galfar and STS and Tebodin for offering their valuable services without charge and sharing their expertise.
“We hope that this initiative will raise further awareness on the vital importance of HSE in schools and that this can cascade in the classroom to pupils.”
The programme will cover the training of fire, electrical and chemical safety, housekeeping, hygiene, lifting and material handling, ergonomics, waste management and emergency response.
Al-Ajmi signed the agreement with J.K. Salvi, vice president (Business Development) at Galfar, Steve Pickering, managing director of STS and Tebodin, at PDO’s headquarters in Muscat.
Pickering said: “STST is proud to work closely with PDO and others in this initiative to provide HSE education at local Omani schools. “We are fully committed to protecting the health, safety and environment within our work areas and now embrace this opportunity as part of our corporate social responsibility.”
The signing follows another recent MoU signed between PDO and the Technical and Administrative Training Institute (TATI) LLC to provide defensive driving training to 400 school bus drivers operating in its concession area.
Drivers covering 45 schools were also instructed on the importance of good vehicle maintenance, passenger care and general road safety awareness.