Coventry University providing disaster training for Singapore authorities

A team led by Coventry University Enterprises (CUE) has been successful in winning two major contracts, together worth over £3 million, with Singaporean government agencies.

State of the art simulation systems have been created to provide realistic and safe training for the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Home Team Academy, the local equivalent of Singapore's fire service and a police-led partnership.

Initially, the CUE, which is the University’s business arm, led a team to win a major contract with the Singapore Civil Defence Force to provide a simulation training system for the fire commanders. Working closely with their trainers, CUE and the team also created a package which will soon be able to simulate more than 200 disaster and emergency scenarios for fire control officers to work through.

Frank Mills, executive chair and managing director of CUE, explained:

Each trainee can be put through a variety of scenarios ranging from a street fire to a major explosion in an oil terminal. The simulator scenarios are incredibly lifelike, allowing users to learn from their mistakes within a safe but realistic environment. Each instructor also has the ability to change the scenario in real time to reflect a true life emergency situation.”

The second contract, with the Home Team Academy – a police-led partnership which includes elements of the Army and the Fire Service – provides a training model which is more focused on scenarios around crowd control, such as where there is a panic situation, or other major incident.

Both contracts were won by CUE with its strategic partner XVR Simulation, the provider of the advanced software platform and delivery partners, CUE's own subsidiaries, Serious Games-Singapore Pte and Serious Games International Ltd.

Frank Mills added:

Singapore is an acknowledged leader in disaster emergency management in South East Asia and our business relationship with them will help address other opportunities across the region and we are already working on some key prospects."

Notes to Editors:

IMAGES: Stills taken from the simulation training programme. More available on request.