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Our popular technician courses include IMCA approved "Assistant Life Support Technician" for personnel following the IMCA career structure to become Life Support Technicians. They control saturation diving system environments. Diving System Technicians maintain the complex diving plant and equipment used on commercial air or closed bell diving work sites.

Divers living in saturation conditions require constant monitoring and control by personnel outside the deck decompression chamber. The oxygen content of their breathing gas, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the pressure, temperature and humidity of their environment all need to be monitored regularly and functions such as feeding and sewage disposal need to be controlled from the outside.

The history of commercial diving has seen a very rapid expansion in the use of saturation diving techniques, with increasingly sophisticated equipment and larger chamber complexes being developed to meet the need for large numbers of divers to work at greater depths.

This has greatly increased the responsibilities of those who control the chamber environment and, consequently, the knowledge they must have of the physics, physiology and medical aspects of supporting man in high-pressure environments.

Life Support Technicians come from a variety of different backgrounds, including highly skilled technicians from other industries, qualified nurses, former divers and some specially trained for the role.

It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that personnel are correctly trained in the maintenance and operation of equipment and systems in order to ensure competence.

Two grades of Technician are proposed:

a) Technician

Technicians will normally hold a formal qualification awarded by a recognised national body in one of the following subjects:

• Radio, Television and Electronics Servicing and Mechanics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Hydraulic Engineering
• Electrical Installation
• Motor Vehicle Engineering
• Agricultural Machinery Maintenance and Repair
• Marine Engineering
• Electrical Power Technician
• Plumbing
• Shipbuilding
• Telecommunications
  or
• hold a University Degree in Engineering
  or
• have completed a recognised Trade Apprenticeship in a relevant trade.

b.i) Senior Technician (All Systems)

To qualify as a Senior Technician (All Systems), a suitably trained mechanical, electrical or hydraulic (qualified in accordance with (a) above) Technician will normally have logged at least 300 days working on diving systems offshore, at least 150 days of which must have been spent working on saturation diving systems.

b.ii) Senior Technician (Surface Supplied Only)

To qualify as a Senior Technician (Surface Supplied Only), a suitably trained mechanical, electrical or hydraulic (qualified in accordance with a) above) Technician will normally have logged at least 300 days working on diving systems offshore, none of which or fewer than 150 days of which will have been spent working on saturation diving systems.

NOTE:
All personnel will be required to undergo a suitable period of familiarisation to ensure competence to undertake the work for which he/she will be employed.

The days noted above may be gained anywhere in the world so long as they are properly authenticated by the Equipment manager, Personnel manager or equivalent person from a Signatory Company (or one of their associated companies) in the individual's personal Technician's Log Book.