Iraqi conflict highlights need for hostile environment training
Posted: 14 August 2003
The death of a US civilian contractor on 5 August near Tikrit,
Iraq, illustrates the risks now faced by employees and contractors
working in conflict zones.
The contractor was travelling in a convoy when his car hit an improvised
explosive device. It is unclear if the convoy was targeted or if
his vehicle hit the ordnance by accident.
The geo-political risk map is changing and global businesses need
to conduct operations in politically unstable or hostile regions.
Employee safety and health in conflict zones, along with the issue
of corporate responsibility is one that international media organisations
have successfully addressed; with the majority now ensuring that
journalists are trained to manage and survive in hostile environments,
before being sent overseas.
Graduates of accredited courses, such as global provider AKE Ltd’s
Working in Hostile Regions, report successful avoidance of life-threatening
situations and greater confidence resulting from their newly-acquired
security awareness and field medical skills.
Corporations report advantageous business results, including enhanced
operations, reduced costs and improved employee relations.
An international leader in risk reduction training and services,
with offices in the US, UK and Australia, AKE Ltd (www.akegroup.com)
is one of the few companies to take an integrated approach to risk;
offering security, medical and intelligence training, services and
products designed to work complementarily or alone.
“You cannot approach the problem of risk from just one angle”,
says Managing Director Andrew Kain. “You need to think holistically
- it’s a jigsaw puzzle, not a picture. If Working in Hostile
Regions graduates also want one of our Special Forces-trained security
risk specialists and medics to protect their team – and we
have several now in Iraq doing that - then we’ll arrange that.
If they want access to Global Intake, our interactive intelligence
and risk online resource, or location identification through our
GPS Tracker, then those and other services are there.”
A renowned expert on hostile environments and frequent international
speaker, Kain was in 1993 the first person to design and offer a
hostile environments training course. The first life saved as a
result of AKE’s training led to immediate and widespread acceptance
of his principles, which have subsequently set the industry standard
internationally.
Kain believes the energy industry needs now to look at reducing
risk to its operations and employees in a similar way.
“We want to use our considerable and varied expertise to
support the energy industry more widely in its drive towards safety
and successful operations in challenging zones. In addition, we’re
highly experienced in maritime security and ISPS code compliance.
Many companies are already using us, and we want to spread the message
more widely so we can help prevent civilian casualties. To that
end, we’ll be exhibiting at Stand 1299 at Offshore Europe
in Aberdeen, September 2-5 — the only risk reduction company
to do so — and we look forward to discussing this important
issue with industry leaders”.
For more information see www.akegroup.com.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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