Water Skill Masterclass: discover the OiEau’s new video series!

For over 40 years, OiEau has established itself as the benchmark for skills development for all stakeholders in the water sector. Its training centre is based on a model of excellence supported by a permanent team of 35 expert trainers, all of whom have practical experience in the field and ensure both the quality of teaching and the transfer of expertise.

To support this practical learning, OiEau has 45,000 m² of exceptional training facilities, enabling it to faithfully replicate real-world installations and structures. With a comprehensive catalogue of over 280 training courses and numerous accredited programmes certified by independent bodies (Qualiopi, CATEC, AIPR, etc.), OiEau guarantees a comprehensive range of courses covering all topics related to the water sector.

Finally, its complete independence from private stakeholders, manufacturers and equipment suppliers ensures that teaching is impartial, objective and entirely focused on best practice within the sector.

In the water and environmental sectors, theory alone is not enough. Indeed, the efficiency and sustainability of infrastructure, as well as health and environmental safety, often depend on the precision of a sequence of actions: fitting a connector, adjusting a valve, taking a sample or carrying out a maintenance operation, for example.

Certain water sector roles involve occupational risks. Learning the practical skills of the trade enables each task to be carried out safely, thereby protecting staff whilst ensuring the longevity of equipment and infrastructure.

That is why these videos, filmed directly within our 45,000 m² of training facilities, feature our trainers working on full-scale equipment, such as an underground pipework network, a control panel or a micro-sewage treatment plant. This choice of practical demonstrations reflects OiEau’s teaching method: confronting the realities of the field, materials, contexts and so on.

Released at a rate of one video every two months, this new series is aimed both at practising professionals wishing to consolidate their knowledge or develop their skills, and at learners or anyone with an interest in the water sector. These short videos break down each technical manoeuvre to explain exactly how it is carried out.

To showcase OiEau’s technical expertise internationally, each video is dubbed into English and Spanish using artificial intelligence. The aim? To offer a fully immersive visual experience and allow viewers to observe each technical manoeuvre without having to read subtitles!

In this issue, Romain Prouzet, Training and Research Officer at OiEau, explains what this often-overlooked component of water networks is, how it works, and how to maintain it.

“The air release valveis a widely underestimated and, unfortunately, a too often neglected component of the network. From a mechanical point of view, it is a simple piece of equipment, which often leads field teams to treat it as an afterthought.

Faced with day-to-day emergencies, technicians naturally prioritise repairing leaks, replacing meters or maintaining fire hydrants, for example. Maintaining a air release valve may therefore seem incidental, but this apparent simplicity masks a crucial hydraulic reality. Indeed, when a air release valve no longer fulfils its role, this can have several consequences: air accumulates in the pipes, reducing the space available for water and increasing its flow velocity. This causes significant pressure drops, due to friction between water molecules, and leads to reduced water pressure for users. Furthermore, a faulty air release valve can become a source of continuous leakage, sometimes operating in this way for many months without anyone noticing.

In the field, there are many such devices, and they are often located a long way apart. Professionals therefore have to spend a great deal of time organising their journeys for a job that ultimately takes only a few minutes.

However, this quick technical procedure is essential for conserving the water supply and plays a vital role in the overall detection of leaks in the network.”