Fleetwood Offshore Survival Centre (FOSC) was formed during the late 1980’s to offer survival training to the Merchant Navy and the Offshore Oil/Gas Industries. The centre is situated at Blackpool and The Fylde College’s Nautical Campus on the outskirts of Fleetwood.

During the early part of its existence FOSC had no purpose built facilities and used public swimming pools and slipways to provide practical survival training. The fire-fighting elements of the various courses were sub-contracted to Washington Hall International Fire Training Centre at Chorley.

Due to the increase in Offshore Oil/Gas Industry emergency response training needs, FOSC was able to fund the building of a purpose built river launching facility with both Single and Twin Fall Totally Enclosed Motor Propelled Survival Craft (TEMPSC). The centre now has a fleet of five TEMPSCs (a mix of Twin and Single Fall), four Fast Rescue Craft (FRCs) (a mix of Jet and Outboard Drives) and three support craft of varying sizes.

FOSC also designed, constructed and equipped an environmental training facility on the Nautical Campus site. The centrepiece of this facility is the 18mx12mx4m tank with a wave machine capable of producing a metre swell wave of various patterns. Additionally, darkness and rainfall can be created to provide extreme abandonment conditions.

FOSC continued to subcontract the fire-fighting requirements of their courses until August of 2001 when a purpose built fire training facility was opened. This facility is approximately one mile from the main campus and its introduction has dramatically reduced the travelling time for delegates attending the Offshore Oil/Gas training courses.

During the early part of 2002 FOSC obtained accreditation to run the two STCW 95 Fire-fighting courses for the Merchant Navy. These were completely new to FOSC and in offering these courses a student for a deck officer’s certificate of competence can complete all the required training “in house” at the Nautical Campus.

From fairly humble beginnings FOSC has developed into a well-equipped training provider and has accreditation for the following organisation courses OPITO, MCA, RYA, IMO, HSE and STCW.

In addition to being a well-established training provider FOSC has developed within its organisation Fleetwood Test House (FTH).

FTH consists of Fleetwood Testing Laboratory (FTL) and Fleetwood Notified Body (FNB) these two organisations give FTH the ability to test and certify lifejackets and immersion suits to the CE Mark which is the minimum requirement when companies retail lifejackets and immersion suits within the European Union.

In addition to the CE testing and certification FTH also test marine safety equipment to SOLAS and MCA requirements and regulations.

Recent changes in legislation have also given FTH the opportunity to facilitate equipment compatibility testing on behalf of the HSE and other commercial organisations.

FOSC is a well-equipped and well-respected organisation which is at the forefront of both safety training and safety equipment testing and evaluation.

The centre is accredited to the ISO 9000-2000 Standard.