Case studies

Chemical Process Training Centre (CPTC)

Scope: Training centre management and training delivery
Client: Economic Development Board of Singapore
Location: Jurong Island, Singapore

The Chemical Process Training Centre (CPTC) was the first training centre in the world to contain an industry-scale petrochemical process plant. Designed to operate as an actual production unit in a typical commercial plant, the process unit allows trainees to experience real plant operations, thus enhancing their training experience in controlled conditions with reduced risk.

Petrofac managed the CPTC on behalf of the Economic Development Board of Singapore for almost eight years. We provided an extensive range of competence based technical training and assessment, focused on skills assessment and development of operations and maintenance personnel for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries. This included shift rotation, permit to work with task risk assessments, start-up and shut-down exercises, emergency response and fire drill exercises.

When undertaking competence development, either in workshops, on skids, or on the plant, we replicated the client’s own specific work place environment as closely as possible, to best suit the needs of country, customer or specific nationalisation programmes. This enabled effective transfer and implementation of the technical competence developed into the client’s workplace.

CPTC facilities
This state-of-the-art centre included:

• A live process plant for practical operations training – fully equipped with a distillation system and chemical laboratory, plus control room
• 1 Flowserve laboratory with various cutaway pumps and pump training rigs, plus separate classroom
• 1 Yokagawa laboratory with mini process simulator and distributed control system (DCS), plus various instrumentation and test equipment
• 4 Honeywell equipped classrooms
• 1 safe system of work training suite with process skid and extensive safety training equipment
• 1 major emergency management training simulator
• Conference room Auditorium – 200-person maximum capacity
• 15 classrooms
• Two fully equipped computer based training and e-learning classrooms

Centre capabilities
Our training supported both new entrants to industry and experienced personnel who wished to develop their skills further – upgrading and enhancing their knowledge and competence in the latest technological developments. Courses included:

• Operations and technical training
• Health and safety
• Critical incident management training
• Competence assurance management
• Learning and development
• Consultancy

More competent workforces
Through our involvement in the project, we:

• Delivered over 1 million hours’ worth of training without any lost time incidents
• Developed competent, safer and more efficient workforces
• Provided hands on training in a live plant under ‘typical’ plant conditions, with replication of each client’s workplace environment using their safe systems of work processes
• Assisted clients in their pre-employment screening process which, in turn, helped them to reduce inherent risk within their business