Within just six days of completing his training with AIS, former military man and farm manager, Alastair Jeffrey was flying off on a helicopter to his first offshore oil and gas job.
Alastair, who was born in Pitlochry, Scotland but now lives in Yorkshire with his wife and three children, has a military background but has spent the last two years running two family farms in Yorkshire.
The 43-year old had always considered a career in the oil and gas sector and in July this year took the plunge by investing £4,000 of his own money into a series of training courses with AIS Training to give him the right qualifications to apply for offshore jobs. As well as the mandatory basic oil and gas training, Alastair successfully completed courses in rigging, banksman slinger and rope access to give him a wide variety of in-demand skills.
Alastair’s strategy worked and in less than a week he had secured an offshore job helping to decommission an oil platform in the North Sea. Since then he has been working non-stop and is thoroughly enjoying his new offshore career.
Alastair said: “With no experience and no contacts offshore, it was a huge gamble for me to invest so much money with no guarantee of success. However, it’s certainly paid off for me big time. I’m now earning up to 50% more than I did in my previous job and finally have the time and resources to spend real quality moments with my family. I wish I’d done this years ago!
“I can’t recommend AIS Training highly enough. I stayed in the onsite hotel and trained at the facilities for three weeks. Everything was outstanding. The instructors were friendly, approachable and extremely knowledgeable. The hotel was really comfortable, with the night managers always on hand to take you out to local restaurants and amenities, and the training facilities were superb.
“Being new to the industry, I found myself constantly asking questions but the team at AIS couldn’t have been more helpful. As well as all the qualifications, I picked up lots of tips and advice which has undoubtedly helped my get my first offshore job.”
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