CURRENT NEWS

Training Ventures

EMIS facilitated two extensive training programmes for delegates from Libya and Qatar in June and July 2004:

• Libyan Arab Airlines sent their electronic and non destructive testing standards to EMIS for calibration. Four of their senior engineers also came with the equipment to both witness the calibration and to get training in its use. The programme involved them being in the UK for two weeks and visiting different standards laboratories who specialise on avionics equipment and NDT. The delegates were issued with certificates of attendance at the end of the programme. The project moved into a second phase when as two EMIS technicians went to Tripoli to calibrate all of the LAA workshop test equipment and to provide additional training for staff members.
  
  
• The armed forces of Qatar have an extensive calibration centre located in Doha and the Director is Lt Col Adel Fakhroo who wished to visit calibration facilities in the UK to benchmark his own organisation and to investigate the possibility of achieving their traceability through the UK National Measurement System. EMIS organised a month long programme for Lt Col Adel which included visits to; NPL, Agilent, UKAS, SIRA, Fluke and various other centres of excellence in the UK calibration industry. This was coupled with several formal training courses relating to the implementation of ISO 17025. It is likely that LT Col Adel will send some of his staff members for similar training in the near future.

Trade Missions

EMIS will be attending a couple of trade missions in the latter part of 2004 with a view to expanding the business overseas with additional JV operations:

• Turkey is a target market for EMIS having visited a couple of times previously and investigated the market potential. Suitable partners have been found and the trade mission run by SDI (Scottish Development International) in September is a perfect vehicle to take one final look at the market before signing a JV to be based in Istanbul. More news soon……
  
  
• United Arab Emirates & Oman are oil rich places in the world and provide tremendous potential for EMIS not only for work in the oil & gas industry but for training opportunities. The trade mission again run by SDI in October provides an opportunity to consolidate contacts in the UAE and to make new contacts in Oman.