DESPERATE for training in several areas since the United States imposed restrictions on it a few years ago, the Royal St. Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) was overwhelmed with gratitude when the Regional Security System (RSS) offered to conduct two courses for its Marine Unit.
The Basic Engineering Course and the Advanced Outboard Maintainers Course were the courses offered, which ended Monday and each had five members of the Marine Unit enrolled.
Students were required to achieve a passing grade of 60 percent in each of the theoretical and practical assessments, however they achieved an 81.5 percent and 81.4 percent for the Basic Engineering Course and the Advance Outboard Maintainer Course, respectively.
Superintendent Finley Leonce said the courses came at an opportune time for the Marine Unit in that in the recent past there had been a dearth of training opportunities for members of the department.
“A plea was made to the RSS and they understood, appreciated, and accepted the dilemma which the unit is faced with. This has resulted in the Regional Security System coming to the rescue of the Marine Unit with these two courses,” he said, adding that two more courses will be starting at the Marine Unit the beginning of next month.
“We at the Marine Unit are grateful for these opportunities. The training will go a long way in enhancing the engineering capacity of the recipients. They were chosen for these courses because they have displayed requisite aptitude but more importantly they possessed the right attitude to become successful in the field of engineering,” Leonce added.
Deputy Police Commissioner Milton Desir was also delighted with the training given to his men by the RSS.
“When these two courses were offered by RSS, we grabbed the opportunity and maximized the number of persons who could have attended. Courses of that nature could not have been more timely as we have to maintain and preserve our existing assets, because we are not sure when we are going to get replacements,” Desir said.
RSS Commander Brian Roberts said the courses were among other accomplishments by the RSS, to build capacity throughout the region among Member States.
“We intend to continue in this capacity building mode and returning here in October to do additional evidence course and in November to do two maritime related courses,” he said.
Chief Petty Officer of the RSS Kirk Holder said the basic engineering course was structured to give students knowledge of the safety precautions and practices in the engineering field, to enable them to be conversant with the use of the various types of hand and measuring tools, to have the ability to identify the operational system of the machinery for their safety, to conduct basic restart checks, identify defects and effect repairs and perform routine maintenance as required.
These were achieved through the following subjects taught like engineering ethics, engineering management, occupational health and safety, unit of management and tools, basic electricity, outboard motor maintenance, diesel motor maintenance, diagnostic testing and other related fields.
