Wärtsilä Land & Sea Academy (WLSA) opened a new training center in Jisa, near Pusan in South Korea. The new training center supports the growing use of Wärtsilä engines and propulsion equipment in ships built in Korea.
Korean engine builders are leading manufacturers of Wärtsilä RT-flex low-speed engines under licence. Wärtsilä and Hyundai have formed a joint venture company named Wärtsilä Hyundai Engine Company Ltd to manufacture Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel medium speed engines to power large LNG carriers. Korean shipyards are taking more than 80% of the world market for LNG carriers.
The new WLSA center is purpose-built to provide training primarily for Wärtsilä RT-flex low-speed engines and Wärtsilä 50DF medium-speed engines for customers' engineers, shipyard staff, the licensed manufacturers and classification society surveyors.
The WLSA center has premises with a total enclosed area of 1700 m2, of which the workshops cover 1400 m2 and the offices and lecture rooms cover 300 m2. Initially the training center will employ seven to eight persons. When fully operational early in 2008, the centre will be able to train some 500 to 600 people a year.
In addition to providing practical and theoretical training for Wärtsilä RT-flex, 50DF, Vasa 32 and 20 engine types, the WLSA centre includes workshops for mechanical work, non-destructive inspection and welding to upgrade engineers' practical skills.
The WLSA Korean training centers is one in a series of major training centers built for global coverage of training and competence management services in the marine and power plant industries. Others are located at Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Turku, Finland; Trieste, Italy; Winterthur, Switzerland; Gothenburg, Sweden; Zwolle and Drünen, The Netherlands; Khopoli, India; and Subic Bay in the Philippines.