A TASMANIA-first specialist underwater vehicle training program has successfully started at Beauty Point this week.
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The Underwater Centre, outside Beaconsfield, has enrolled an elite trio of engineering students from across Australia and the world to partake in the remotely operated underwater vehicle course.
The three-week session will give the young men an opportunity to further their engineering careers, with the training offered in very few places across the country.
A forecast expansion of the global oil and gas industry in the next four years has prompted the centre's decision to promote the training, with head of training Paul Bury saying the program will allow students to work across the globe.
``There is a massive growth in the demand for ROV technology and ROV personnel now,'' he said.
``We're seeing, across Tasmania and worldwide, as the search for oil and gas becomes more difficult, things are going deeper.
``There is a limit to how deep divers can dive, so we're seeing a massive future with the ROVs.''
Following successful employment in Scotland in previous years, the Underwater Centre's $200,000 CI Falcon, will now remain in Tasmania.
``It's basically an ROV that can go underwater for an unlimited length of time and this particular machine can go underwater to about 300 metres, which is far deeper than most divers would ever, ever venture,'' Mr Bury said.
``The vehicle has a colour camera, so you can go down and get video footage, or beyond the depth of which divers usually go, to inspect footage of sub-sea pipelines.
``Particularly in places like fish farms, a lot of fish farms now use ROVs.''
The centre will offer at least two more underwater vehicle training programs throughout the remainder of the year.