Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety College opens

HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi, HE the Minister of Transport Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti and GDCD Director-General Staff Brigadier General Abdullah Mohamed al-Suwaidi with other dignitaries and officials at the opening ceremony.

By Ayman Adly/Staff ReporterThe state-of-the-art Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety College (RLESC) is set to provide the best educational and training services in public safety and emergency management in Qatar and the region. The college, located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, was officially inaugurated by HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday. The opening ceremony was attended by HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi and HE the Minister of Transport Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti. Senior officials from the Ministry of Interior (MoI), Civil Defence and Qatar Petroleum (QP) were also present, besides foreign guests and a number of oil and gas industry leaders and safety professionals.  RLESC, which is the outcome of a partnership and collaboration between QP and the MoI, is a premier emergency and safety training college designed to provide advanced training to professionals in the oil, gas, petrochemical, civil defence, civil and military aviation and other sectors in Qatar as well as the greater Middle East, North Africa and Asia.  The opening of RLESC took place as part of the activities of the 4th Civil Defence Exhibition and Conference, which concludes today.   The college will work towards advancing the capabilities of civil defence personnel, whether locally, regionally or internationally, offering unique educational opportunities for civil protection, fire-fighting, search-and-rescue efforts, industrial and aviation fires and incidents and disaster management, among other related fields. The facility, which has been built over 1,000,000sq m at a total cost of QR1.7bn, is equipped with modern classrooms, simulators and indoor and outdoor facilities. It incorporates 32 training courses and this number is expected to go up to 50 at a later stage. The college also has 30 training models for a variety of fire types, featuring sophisticated simulators, and a dedicated training field for drivers of fire trucks and emergency vehicles. Actual training at RLESC started two months ago. Similar training started at Ras Laffan Industrial City in 2010, which helped the college gain valuable experience in the field.     “This college is part of the greater vision of the State and a reflection of our commitment to initiatives that meet the ambitions and vision of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani,” HE Dr al-Sada said. “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.”He pointed out that “the college will serve the industrial sector from its location in the world’s biggest natural gas liquefaction site”.“It will serve as an important tool in protecting lives and properties,” HE Dr al-Sada added.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.The college will offer various types of training - ranging from preliminary courses to advanced and specialised ones. Applicants can enrol in single training courses in a specific field of study, whose duration will vary from three days to 12 weeks. While the college is designed to cater to the requirements of organisations, individuals can also enrol.“RLESC is designed to be an advanced training facility, serving not only our constituents in Qatar, but also the greater Middle East as well as Asia and North Africa. The college is a testament to our resolve to become a hallmark of emergency safety training,” said Khalid al-Ansari, RLESC manager. “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.”Staff Brigadier General Abdullah Mohamed al-Suwaidi, Director-General of the General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD), said RLESC would be instrumental in meeting the training requirements of GDCD to support the unprecedented development projects across all sectors in Qatar. The array of props at RLESC features some of the most advanced equipment of their kind anywhere in the world. 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, commercial building, villa, cinema, shopping centre, a warehouse and forensics investigation structures. The props for search-and-rescue training feature a confined space as well as a “collapsed” building. RLESC engages Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) as a training partner and provider. TEEX is internationally acclaimed in the area of advanced practical emergency and safety training. Further, almost all RLESC Emergency Training courses are accredited by the National Board on Fire Service Professional Qualifications (Pro Board), US.Currently, RLESC has begun a joint field research in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which is being supervised by Texas A&M University at Qatar with support from British Petroleum.