OFFSHORE vs ONSHORE - ADAS SUPERVISOR QUALIFICATIONS
Australia has two separate sectors of regulated diving -
(1) onshore and inshore construction diving which is regulated by the Australian state occupational health and safety authorities and
(2) offshore/inshore oil and gas diving which is regulated by a National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority under federal/state mirror legislation.
Under (1), divers are required to be supervised by trained and ADAS certified ONSHORE Supervisor. Onshore Supervsiors do not require offshore oil and gas diving experience and are qualified either as Occupational Scuba Supervisors or Surface supply Supervisor to 30m (Restricted SSBA) or Surface supply Supervisor to 50m (Unrestricted SSBA). They are issued an ADAS (plastic card) Certificate of Competence which is quite clearly marked ONSHORE Supervisor.
They are competent supervisors at the level to which they have been trained and certified but do not necessarily have offshore experience and are not certified by ADAS to supervise offshore operations. These Onshore Supervisor certificates are not recognised by IMCA for supervising offshore operations .
Under (2), divers must supervised by trained and certified ADAS OFFSHORE Supervisors who must have complied with the ADAS/IMCA/DCBC agreed training and assessment regime. These supervisor must comply with the requirement to be experienced offshore commercial divers and have the requisite offshore supervisory and ALST panel hours etc. They will have ADAS plastic identity cards that quite clearly state that they are either ADAS Air or Bell OFFSHORE Supervisors. These certificates are recognised by IMCA and also under the Canadian system.
To make the matter more confusing for everyone, under the Australian national vocational and technical training system, successful graduates for Supervisor qualifications are awarded an (A4 sized paper) national Diploma in recognition of their academic achievement. These Diplomas have have no legal significance. All ADAS Supervisor graduates are awarded with these Diplomas but as noted above, their legal certificate of competence is the ADAS plastic card.
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