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UK Oil and Gas Industry Launch Recruitment Drive to Provide Trained Skilled Labour
| Date: | 25 Jun 2001 | | Details: | The UK offshore oil and gas industry is launching a major recruitment drive with Government backing to address concerns that the sector is heading for a shortage of skilled technicians over the next five to ten years.
Oil and gas exploration and production companies, through their representative body, the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA), and the government/industry PILOT initiative, will contribute an additional £1.5 million over the next three years to boost the number of technician apprenticeships in a bid to reverse ageing trends in the current workforce.
Brian Wilson, Energy Minister and PILOT chairman, said: "This initiative is both vital and urgent. Pilot is all about investing in the future success of our industry. A skilled workforce is a key component to continued success and this initiative will help us to achieve the challenging targets set for the industry."
"The Industry needs to recruit and train approximately 150 new technicians each year to replace those leaving the sector either to retire or to take up jobs elsewhere. This new funding will boost the Industry's recruitment and training effort and expand the pool of trained, skilled labour," explains Michel Contie, managing director of TotalFinaElf, who co-ordinated this issue on behalf of the operators for the Industry Leadership Team (ILT). "Almost half of all production technicians employed in the offshore oil and gas industry today are over 45 years of age. This figure is expected to rise to some 60 percent by 2005."
The funding will allow the ECITB (the Engineering and Construction Industries Training Board), which had originally agreed to train 42 production technicians for the offshore industry this year, to provide an extra 38 apprenticeship places. This will bring to 80 the total number of offshore technician apprenticeships on offer this year through the ECITB.
These apprenticeships are in addition to 72 technician training places that oil and gas companies have already committed to fund this year through schemes managed on behalf of the Industry by the National Training Organisation for oil and gas extraction (OPITO), or by individual companies. The additional ECITB apprenticeships will make up the shortfall to deliver the 150 training places required for 2001. The total cost of these schemes alone over the next three to four years will amount to some £7.8 million.
Mike Salter, chairman of PILOT's National Training Organisations (NTO) group and member of the ILT, said: "The initiative is a direct follow on from the UKOOA funded Skills Foresight Report which was launched for OPITO in February 2000 by the current Energy Minister, Brian Wilson, when he was Minister of State at the Scotland Office. It is the result of pan-industry discussions and co-operation between not only OPITO and the ECITB but also UKOOA and the Offshore Contractors Association (OCA). It provides a framework for an annual review of future training requirements and the funding of that training for the long-term future of the industry.
"During the coming months we will be developing a longer term strategic approach in order to continue to address this problem in 2002 and beyond"
Michel Contie adds: "The oil and gas industry has collectively recognised that the risk of a technician skills shortage was a strategic issue which might have affected its overall performance and reputation if not managed by some sort of centralised approach. ECITB involvement, as well as alignment of contractor and operator communities, was critical to a successful outcome in ensuring that the target of 150 trainees for this year was achieved. | | Contact: | Trisha O'Reilly, PILOT Communications
Tel: 020 7802 2422
Email: toreilly@ukooa.co.uk |
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For all press enquiries please contact:
Trisha O'Reilly at UKOOA Tel: 0207 802 2422 Email: toreilly@ukooa.co.uk
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