The staff of any organization that handles hydrocarbon products must be trained on how to prevent, manage, and respond to oil spills. In fact, on-going training programs are necessary to maintain the level of readiness required to respond to small and major oil spills.

Interactive Oil Spill Training Center “IOSTC” founded in 2001, a division of HN Consultant Ltd located in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, specializes in delivering cost effective training in oil spill response and management, and consultation services in the areas of contingency planning and environmental impact assessment. IOSTC's professional team has extensive world-wide experience in the fields of marine and land oil spill response operations, oil spill management, oil spill contingency planning, oil spill response training, environmental and marine science, and computer science. IOSTC team members have successfully developed and marketed interactive training projects, oil spill contingency planning and related training services to national and international clients.

IOSTC works with its clients to define their training needs and develop appropriate training courses, including classroom, interactive e-learning, and field training. In addition, IOSTC develops training management systems to facilitate and enhance environmental management and in so doing improve both efficiency and safety. Through their experience in the field of oil spill response the founders of IOSTC realized the need for cost effective training that would capitalize on the advancement in the E-learning technology and provide their clients with leading edge efficient training solutions. IOSTC has developed effective methodologies and partnership models for applications development.

Training Services

IOSTC has combined the power of interactive technology and years of experience in environmental education and training to develop state-of-art cost effective E-Learning training solutions for oil spill response and management. In addition to our training applications, we work with our clients to define their training needs and develop appropriate training courses including classroom, interactive, and field training. IOSTC also develops training management systems to facilitate and enhance environmental management and by so doing improve both efficiency and safety.

What we offer

Training course and workshops - Our team has conducted and organized training and response exercises for government agencies and industries around the world. In addition we have developed a joint program with Capilano University of North Vancouver, BC "Oil Spill Management Program".
E-Learing courses - In addition to our on-line training courses, we developed customized training based on our clients specific work environment and needs. We have customized our Basics of Oil Spill Training to include specific oil spill contingency plans

Advantages of Interactive Training

Consistent delivery of information.
Cost effective solution - significant savings over instructor-led, face-to-face training at different locations by reducing costs such as travel, meals and lodging. This method also reduces costs related to training administrative and management support by automatically measuring and recording various data relevant to the progress of trainees. Click here to compare the costs of traditional classroom training to interactive training.
Higher learning absorption rate - the training modules use interactive feedback, hence improved comprehension and retention of knowledge.
Broader range of information is provided in an easy to learn animated format.
Availability of training seven days per week, 24 hours per day at the user’s fingertips.
Testing/Scoring - Feedback is immediate with the training modules.
Instant update and information delivery on new products.
Self-paced Training - users can move through the lessons at their own pace. Reviewing forgotten or unclear material is just a matter of clicking on the 'topic' or 'menu' button.
Self-directed Training - allowing trainees to choose content appropriate to their differing interests, needs, and skill levels.

IOSTC's Advantages

Customization - IOSTC training applications are designed as a modular structure to allow simple cost effective customization.

Train-The-Trainer - IOSTC training applications are designed as Train-the-Trainer kits, providing instructors with powerful tools to customize the training for specific requirements and integrating other training tools and presentations.

Innovation - IOSTC training applications have been developed to provide a flexible approach to oil spill response training. Courses can be used by an individual or can be set up to provide a standard company-wide training program. The individual user is assigned a unique password so that only that person can access their individual training file.

Quality - IOSTC training materials have been prepared by internationally recognized leaders in oil spill response training who have conducted many hundreds of courses worldwide.

User Flexibility - Users can take the course at one session or can progress on a step-by-step basis through the individual modules and spread the training over a period of time.

Certification - The Knowledge Test can be taken over the Internet to obtain a Course Completion Certificate. This test can be configured so that one individual can participate as part of a standardized company-wide certification program.

Adaptation - The contents of the training course can be tailored to meet the requirements of a specific location or type of operation such as offshore operations, onshore operations, marine oil spills, or river oil spills.

Basics of Oil Spill Response

IOSTC’s Basics of Oil Spill Response training module is available as a CD-ROM, Intranet application with Learning management System; it could also be could be accessed at our E-Learning Portal. The training course can be used in place of or to supplement classroom activities and also as an introduction or refresher to other oil spill response training activities. The applications is designed as Train-the-Trainer kit, to allow trainers to reach larger audiences with consistent information.

The program has been designed to provide a first level introduction training course that covers eight topics:

Properties of Oil
Behavior of Oil
Oil Spill Management
Response Strategies
Response Techniques
Spill Response Equipment
Surveillance and Monitoring
Contingency Planning
Safety

These topics follow the basic material that is covered by the IMO Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Training Course.

Desktop Version

This version is installed on one computer per license. Users can track the progress of their training.

This version of the training program is recommended for small scale companies with one or two locations.

Intranet Version

The Intranet version is installed on your local area network and does not required user registration.

Users track the progress of their training and receive a certificate of completion after completing the course.

Intranet with LMS

The Intranet version is installed on your local area network. Users are required to register. Users track the progress of their training and receive a certificate of completion after completing the course. This version includes a complete Learning Management System. Administrator can track learners' progress, add customized quizzes, and additional training modules.

Web Access

Basics of Oil Spill Response training program could be accessed from IOSTC’s E-Learning Portal for hourly fee. This is recommended for individuals or small scale organizations.

Community Engagement

iSpillMap

iSpillMap is an interactive community engagement communication and information cloud based tool designed by marine scientists with many year of experience in the field or oil spill response and training.

Transparency and timely information dissemination when oil spills occur, during response activities, and after the spill is very important to sustain the trust between the community, response organizations, and government agencies.

Information should be available through the incident command centre to ensure its accuracy rather than obtaining information through traditional media or social media that might not be as accurate which leads to more friction between the community and government agencies.

IOSTC has developed a cloud based application to allow providing instant information without the need for web designers or information technology specialists. Based on Google maps, the person in charge of public affairs enter the spill information and daily updates, including images and videos, through user friendly screens. The program also allows interested member of the community to subscribe to receive regular updates by email, and interact with the response team through social media (Facebook and Twitter).

iSpillMap is a customizable program, it can be installed on your server or hosted and maintained by our team.

Click here to see it in action

Empowerment through education

Providing the community with educational information on oil spills, its potential sources in the region, and existing plans and capabilities including actions to be taken before, during and after a spill is the first step in establishing a constructive dialogue between all parties. Informed public are more engaged in discussions based on facts rather than emotion and fear.

We have developed an additional educational program that could be linked to iSpillMap to provide the community with information about the state of readiness and existing capabilities to prevent and respond to oil spill. We can customize it for your specific information. Check this demo site that was developed for British Columbia.

Interactive Oil Spill Training Center

Training

Community Engagement

Consulting Services

Information Technology

Training Services

What we offer

Advantages of Interactive Training

IOSTC's Advantages

Basics of Oil Spill Response

Desktop Version

Intranet Version

Intranet with LMS

Web Access

Community Engagement

iSpillMap

Empowerment through education

Consulting Services

Information Technology

Our Clients