Celebrating ACTS accreditation with BP in Australia

During September and October, IChemE in Australia celebrated with BP on achieving Accredited Company Training Scheme status, also known as ACTS.

ACTS accreditation has been developed following extensive consultation with industry. It is designed to offer several benefits to all parties (the trainee, the employer and IChemE).

The graduate training scheme accreditation process not only provides the company with a unique opportunity to benchmark its graduate training against world class standards but also allows graduate trainees on the scheme to achieve chartered status in their professional careers as effectively and quickly as possible.

The process of accreditation involves a company tailoring or developing a training scheme to address IChemE’s standard and to detail the training and experiences provided for a graduate on the scheme to develop the competencies and skills required as an accomplished chemical and process engineer.

The structure of schemes are different from company to company due to the different industries involved. Accreditation of a company’s training scheme is on a company-by-company basis.

In March and April this year, BP Kwinana submitted their application to become an accredited company with IChemE. A team of assessors visited the Kwinana site to talk to the graduates, the senior team, and to look at the detail of the training scheme.

The BP Refinery Kwinana’s graduate training scheme has now been formally recognised by IChemE as an Accredited Company Training Scheme. As Australia’s largest refinery, this is a huge achievement for BP Kwinana, they are the first BP refinery globally, and the first company within Australia, to achieve this status under IChemE’s revised accreditation scheme.

During Chemeca 2009, BP and IChemE hosted a cocktail party to celebrate this fabulous achievement. Ian Shott, President of IChemE presented the ACTS certificate to Thys Henys, the Managing Director of BP Kwinana.

Following BP Kwinana’s lead, in May this year BP Bulwer Island also submitted their application to have their graduate training scheme accredited by IChemE. A team of assessors visited the Bulwer Island site in July for the assessment and they have also been successful in achieving ACTS status for the refinery in Brisbane.

During the Presidential address dinner in Brisbane in October, Ian Shott again presented the ACTS certificate to Ian Mulvilhill, the Technical Manager of BP Bulwer Island.

We hope this is the first of many Australia companies who will take BP’s lead in ensuring their graduates get the best opportunities and develop their careers through the ACTS program.

ACTS is for both large and small companies, and can certainly run with other graduate programs. So if you have a process team working with you and you want to know more, then contact the IChemE team in Melbourne for more information.