Offshore staff

SHANGHAI, China -- Lloyd's Register Asia has opened a training center in Shanghai. Lloyd's Register calls the facility the most comprehensive foreign-funded maritime training center in China.

Lloyd's Register says the Lloyd's Register Maritime Institute (Shanghai) was created to provide a center of learning where working surveyors and auditors can share technical knowledge with China's shipbuilders, owners, and maritime students through seminars, lectures, and training courses.

"Quality training, disseminating the latest industry knowledge to the ultimate benefit of the public, is part of the fabric at Lloyd's Register," says John Stansfeld, director of Lloyd's Register Asia. "We are committed to the creation of maritime learning institutes and supporting related research and development whenever practicable, and wherever industry demand is greatest. China's rapid emergence as a modern maritime power has been spectacular to watch. But it is no secret the country's shipbuilding industry has technical challenges to surmount before it can become the world leader by 2015, as is its goal. At Lloyd's Register, we believe we have a role to play in that regard."

In 2010, the Lloyd's Register Group plans to move the headquarters of its marine division from London to Southampton, creating a central Lloyd's Register Maritime Institute in conjunction with the University of Southampton. Today's opening of the satellite training center in Shanghai is the first Asian extension of that strategy, the company says.

The Shanghai office, which is expected to be the first in a network of such facilities provided by Lloyd's Register Asia in China and north Asia, will have the capacity to seat up to 50 students at each seminar, lecture, or training course. It also will deliver interactive specialist courses, Lloyd's Register says. Many of the lectures and seminars will be presented in Mandarin.

Recent surveys conducted by Lloyd's Register's Marine Training Services indicate that seminars on environmental regulations, technical risk management, hull design, noise and vibration, and shaft alignment would be welcomed by China's maritime industry, the company says.

9/10/2007