A new approach to meet the growing demand of professional training for the operating and management staff of desalination plants

For the expected installation and operation of additional seawater desalination plants, manpower is needed. Besides the financing and the manufacturing of these plants, the training of the future staff is a big challenge. It is assumed that in the MENA region each year more than 1000 people will have to be trained. The present and future problem at seawater desalination plants, i.e. the lack of experienced personnel, is also a lack of instructors. There are already existing institutions and facilities in various countries carrying out well-organized training programs at site. In addition, there are many excellent short courses and workshops organized by organisations like EDS or MEDRC — nevertheless, the crucial question remains whether these structures are strong enough to meet the growing demand for professional training in the future. When talking about training programs, the question of how to finance these measurements emerges directly. The solution can be found in an improvement of the availability of the plants. A higher availability resulting in a higher fresh water production rate could be obtained by well-trained staff able to react in a proper way to any disturbances or unstable operation modes of the plant. The so-called “Twinning-Model” could be a suitable approach to meet the demand for professional training. A central training facility called TFEU (based in Europe and affiliated to an existing university or a technical school) is one of the twins and plays the part as developer of training programs (curricula), as instructor for the trainers and as trainer for advanced and simulator courses. Following the curricula, additional experts from other universities or companies are integrated in the team. After an initial phase needed for the training of the trainers, the local “twin” called TFLO is responsible for the fundamental and main training program. A board comprised of participants from all parties involved (i.e. TFEU and TFLO, the manufacturers as well as the operators) surveys the curricula and examination procedures.