NEWS

Transferable Skills Are A Must in Oil, Gas Industry's Labor Shortages

Rigzone Staff

| Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 9:44 AM EST

Training Programs

As more and more companies implement training programs as a recruiting and retention strategy, this trend is on the rise within the oil and gas industry to fast-track an employee’s skill set. BP plc initiated the “Challenge Program”, an initiative for new graduate recruits in their first three years with the company. During the 12-month program, the recruit gains insight to the three fields of BP’s organization: finance, customer service and operational procurement.

“You will discover BP and get trained on the principles of continuous improvement,” the company said on its website. “Twelve months will give you a lot of challenges and we encourage you to take even more on.”

GE Oil & Gas also implemented a training program, called Edison Engineering Development Program, a 2-year, four-rotation initiative for recent engineering graduates. EEDP is an intensive program designed to accelerate participants’ professional development through intense technical training and a variety of business-critical assignments. The program consists of three or more rotational assignments that are engineering projects driven by real GE business priorities, the company said.

Training is a must-have at every company, a 2013 study found, sponsored by BP and conducted by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, which stated that 53 percent of those surveyed would consider jumping to another employer for lack of training and development opportunities.

Training and development factored heavily into their choice of employment, said 75 percent of surveyors. The study also found 25 percent believe a lack of training hurt their careers.

“Geologists coming from the environmental, coal, glacial, volcanology, and mineral industries have an excellent basic education in geoscience,” Daniel J. Tearpock, Chairman Emeritus of Subsurface Consultants & Associates wrote in a company newsletter. “But when it comes to the required knowledge to be proficient in oil and gas exploration and development, they will need additional training in certain areas to enter this industry ready to be contributing members of the team.”