Univ. of New Mexico Students Inform Gen Y of Jobs in Oil, Gas

Millennials, or Generation Y, are the future of the oil and gas industry as they will be expected to fill the open positions that will remain after their older counterparts retire. 

That’s why such campaigns as The Energy and Jobs Tomorrow Case Challenge, sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (API), are so valuable. The Energy and Jobs Tomorrow Case Challenge, a program developed and managed by EdVenture Partners, is purposed to challenge college students to create a comprehensive marketing campaign to educate and inform Generation Y of the wide range of jobs available in the oil and gas industry.

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is one of just 20 schools throughout the country participating in the program.

“UNM is a natural choice to participate in the Energy and Jobs Tomorrow Case Challenge given the oil and gas industry’s importance to New Mexico,” John Benavidez, principal lecturer in marketing for the University of Mexico’s Anderson School of  Management, told Rigzone. “For starters, the school is located in the economic center – Albuquerque – of one of the top oil and gas producing states in the country.”

Part of the campaign is intended to drive prospective oil and gas workers to the Oil and Gas Workforce website, which serves as a one-stop resource for individuals interested in careers, training and/or certifications in oil and gas. In addition to receiving scholarship awards, the top three participating schools will be invited to present their research, campaign plan and results to the API Communications Committee and senior executives in San Francisco.            

“Instead of learning about marketing in a traditional classroom setting, the business students participating in the program are in the field gaining hands-on experience as practitioners. They have already conducted research to identify the level of awareness and perceptions of oil and natural gas careers within the target audience,” Benavidez said. “Using these findings, the students developed an integrated marketing communications strategy and will be implementing their plan over the next five weeks. The benefit to the millennial target audience is that they are being made aware of an online portal with resources needed to secure one of the 9.8 million competitively paid jobs in the industry.”

Considering the current drop in oil prices, the impact on the oil and gas job market is substantial and another reason the campaign is so relevant.

“It is important for the industry to build and maintain top-of-mind awareness with prospective workers,” said Benavidez. “Oil and gas is cyclical and participating campuses in the program are helping to recruit the next generation of workers for the time when the sector rebounds from its current condition.”