Education and Training for the Oil and Gas Industry: Building A Technically Competent Workforce - Phil Andrews, Jim Playfoot

Education and Training for the Oil and Gas Industry: Building A Technically Competent Workforce (eBook)

Phil Andrews, Jim Playfoot (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2014 | 1. Auflage
172 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-12-801018-1 (ISBN)

Volume 2 of the Getenergy Guides series explores the challenges of developing a technically competent workforce for the oil and gas sector globally. The cases in this Volume explore practical examples of the efforts of oil and gas companies, contractors, educational institutions and governments to develop competent, vocationally-trained employees for the industry. Education and training are increasingly viewed as part of the core business of oil and gas companies operating in today's high cost/high risk environment. This book will highlight the approaches which work and offer a framework against which future initiatives can be measured. This second book in the Getenergy Guides series explores nine cases studies from around the world and offers commentary on each case drawn from Getenergy's wealth of experience in uniting education and training providers and the upstream oil and gas industry on a global basis. - Edited by Getenergy's Executive Team which - for more than a decade - has specialised in mapping and connecting the world of education and training with the upstream oil and gas industry through global events and workshops - Detailed research into the key facts surrounding each case with analysis to enable readers to quickly and effectively extract lessons that can be applied to the challenge of building a technically competent workforce - Highlights the aspects of good practice that can be utilised by universities, colleges and training providers in meeting the workforce and skills development needs of the oil and gas industry - Includes full colour images and partnership diagrams' to underscore key concepts - Offers specific commentary on the replicability, sustainability and impact of the approaches outlined

Most of Phil's career has been as an entrepreneur connected to education and training in the upstream oil and gas business. Having graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in politics he was made an Honorary Life Member of the University Union. In 2003, after some travel and a short period working in conferences and publishing, Phil became half of the partnership that founded Getenergy in Aberdeen. He has since been awarded the Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in London and was runner-up in the UK-wide competition. Under Phil's leadership, Getenergy's brand has achieved widespread recognition in the oil and gas and education sectors and more than 40 countries are regularly involved in its meetings, networks and publications. Phil is often asked to speak at international events and is an influential and well-respected international figure in the oil and gas industry who has visited more than 45 countries in support of Getenergy's activities including Iraq, Libya and Equatorial Guinea. His opinion is increasingly sought by Ministers and their governments in matters connected to developing sustainable economic value through training and education funded by oil and gas activities.

Front
1
Education and Training

4
Copyright 5
Dedication 6
Contents 8
About the Authors 12
PHIL ANDREWS 12
JIM PLAYFOOT 12
Preface 14
FIRST WORD – BUILDING 14
SECOND WORD - TECHNICALLY 15
THIRD WORD - COMPETENT 16
SO CAN WE BUILD A TECHNICALLY COMPETENT WORKFORCE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE GLOBAL OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY? (AND HOW WILL THIS BOOK HEL... 17
Acknowledgements 20
The Case Studies 22
About Getenergy 24
Case Study 1 - The Norwegian Approach to Competency Development in the Energy Industry: From School to Industry – How the Norwegian Model of Technical and Vocational Education has Nationalised the Energy Workforce 26
From School to Industry – How the Norwegian Model of Technical and Vocational Education has Nationalised the Energy Workforce 26
THE MOTIVATION 26
THE CONTEXT 27
THE SOLUTION 31
THE IMPACT 36
THE CHALLENGES 37
THE COST 38
Case Study 2 - Building Human Capacity in Saudi Arabia: The Impact of Government Initiatives on the Oil and Gas Workforce 42
The Impact of Government Initiatives on the Oil and Gas Workforce 42
THE MOTIVATION 42
THE CONTEXT 43
THE SOLUTION 46
THE IMPACT 54
THE CHALLENGES 55
THE COST 55
Case Study 3 - Mozambique: The Birth of a New Energy Nation: How a Future Energy Powerhouse is Planning to Address the Need for Competent, Locally-Trained Employees 58
How a Future Energy Powerhouse is Planning to Address the Need for Competent, Locally-Trained Employees 58
THE MOTIVATION 58
THE CONTEXT 59
THE SOLUTION 64
THE IMPACT 71
THE CHALLENGES 73
THE COST 74
Case Study 4 - Houston: Building on Success: How Community Colleges in Houston Are Addressing Workforce Development within the World’s Most Successful Energy Sector 78
How Community Colleges in Houston Are Addressing Workforce Development within the World’s Most Successful Energy Sector 78
THE MOTIVATION 78
THE CONTEXT 80
THE SOLUTION 83
THE IMPACT 90
THE CHALLENGES 92
THE COST 92
Case Study 5 - Kasipkor, Kazakhstan: Creating Vocational Institutions in Kazakhstan for the Development of Human Capacity in Partnership with Leading Education Providers 96
Creating Vocational Institutions in Kazakhstan for the Development of Human Capacity in Partnership with Leading Education Provi... 96
THE MOTIVATION 96
THE CONTEXT 97
THE SOLUTION 99
THE IMPACT 105
THE CHALLENGES 107
THE COST 108
Case Study 6 - Caspian Technical Training Centre, Azerbaijan: Training National Technicians for the Energy Industry in Azerbaijan 112
Training National Technicians for the Energy Industry in Azerbaijan 112
THE MOTIVATION 112
THE CONTEXT 114
THE SOLUTION 116
THE CHALLENGES 123
THE COST 124
Case Study 7 - Ogere Training Centre, Nigeria: Developing Nigerian Technicians for the Agbami FPSO 126
Developing Nigerian Technicians for the Agbami FPSO 126
THE MOTIVATION 126
THE CONTEXT 127
THE SOLUTION 129
THE IMPACT 136
THE CHALLENGES 137
THE COST 137
Case Study 8 - Wintershall Libyan Integration and Development Programme: Nationalising the Oil and Gas Workforce in Libya 140
Nationalising the Oil and Gas Workforce in Libya 140
THE MOTIVATION 140
THE CONTEXT 141
THE SOLUTION 145
THE IMPACT 150
THE CHALLENGES 151
THE COST 151
Case Study 9 - The Well Control Institute, USA: Promoting Global Standards in Well-Control Training 154
Promoting Global Standards in Well-Control Training 154
THE MOTIVATION 154
THE CONTEXT 155
THE SOLUTION 159
THE IMPACT 162
THE CHALLENGES 163
THE COST 164
Glossary of Abbreviations 168
Index 170

Preface

Welcome to the Getenergy Guides Series. In this volume, we focus on the challenge of building a technically competent workforce. After finding commercial quantities of hydrocarbons in a ‘friendly’ country, this could be considered as the most important challenge facing oil and gas companies everywhere. The technical competency of employees lies at the heart of the productivity and safety of every company working in the industry. What is more, the need to develop technically competent workers transcends the oil and gas industry. The degree to which nations remain ‘friendly’ to the international oil and gas business depends, in part, on how effectively the resource windfall transforms into sustainable economic and employment growth and diversification across the economy. We believe such growth and diversification comes down to the strength of a country’s education and training system and its ability to evolve and grow.

However, like any commercially and politically important concept, building a technically competent workforce comes with semantic difficulties, which are best dealt with at the start of this volume, rather than this becoming an unwanted distraction to the reader as the stories we tell unfold. With this in mind, we have decided to explore the concepts to which the title of this volume refers up front.

First Word – Building

This implies that there is not already something to begin with. Or if there is, it is a set of components awaiting assembly. This is obviously not the case for many of those nations who have been exploiting natural resources for years. However, it is true that nascent energy nations view the industry as a vital lever that can help the transition from an agricultural to an industrial and then, perhaps, a post-industrial ‘knowledge’ economy. This aspiration is not a remote goal of developing nations but in fact rather mirrors the story of the cities of Aberdeen and Houston, the latter of which features as a case study in this volume. Building the workforce is demonstrably a key component of that development. And as the Houston case demonstrates, rebuilding is often necessary.

In using ‘Building’ not only are we referencing workforce development underpinned by education and training, but we also want to accentuate the positive opportunity that exists here, (something we originally set out in the Preface of the first Getenergy Guide where we explored the concept of ‘Energy, Education and Economy’); namely that whatever the workforce might look like today, whatever its demographics, adaptability and size, the workforce of any nation is continually renewed and rebuilt. There’s always more to do and more that can and must be done.

Having chosen the word ‘Building’ we then necessarily enter the realm of ‘architecture’ and ‘project management’. In the case of a workforce, this inspires a pivotal question: Whose responsibility is it to build a workforce? The State? The education providers? The companies hiring people? The parents of those who will comprise the workforce? Or the individuals themselves? Given that the answer could be any or all of the above, we have decided to pursue case studies in this volume which variously demonstrate not whom should be undertaking the building job, but rather who benefits. In our Caspian Technical Training Centre case, it is clear that BP have benefitted significantly from their investment in building a technical training centre to meet their workforce needs. Estimates indicate a $500 mn USD saving against the cost of employing foreign workers. And that is just the economic cost – we also encourage our readers to weigh up the political and social advantage from investing in the development of a local, competent workforce. The impact of Wintershall Libya’s LID Programme – which we outline in this volume – is an excellence case in point.

Second Word - Technically

The technical competence question is vitally important to understanding what this book and its cases seek to demonstrate. Namely, that the oil and gas industry is a technical, high-risk, high-cost business. In commissioning and building projects, it is the technical roles which demand many thousands of people, all of whom are critically important to the safe and efficient deployment of infrastructure and the development and operation of assets. Whether offshore or onshore, deep water or desert shale, we hope we will not encounter too many people who take issue with us on the technical focus the cases in this book pursue.

But this does lead to an allied and equally demanding question from our education colleagues. When are skills technical? What is the difference between technical and vocational skills? Surely geoscience graduates are technically skilled as much as a person with a welding ticket? So if the question to answer is ‘what do you mean by technically?’ our response is simple. In this volume, we are focussing on the greatest component within any workforce in nations with significant industrial expansion; namely people who complete practical tasks with their hands, or, who complete otherwise labour-intensive tasks with computers, which would once have been done by hand. This could, of course, equally apply to writing a book (as an example that is close to hand) but we are confident that our readers will understand what we mean!

To further bring clarity to this topic, we should also highlight that in exploring technical competency, we are largely looking at what happens within colleges of technical and vocational education, what is delivered in-house by international and national oil companies and what is offered by private training providers. We’re also keen to point out our focus on non-degree-level education. However, our exploration of the vocational education system in Norway demonstrates how the lines can sometimes become blurred between vocational and academic.

Third Word - Competent

According to the Oxford English Dictionary a person can be competent if they have ‘the necessary ability, knowledge or skill to do something successfully’. Without getting into the debate about whether anyone can aspire to such perfection – and what constitutes ‘success’ – the notion of ‘competent’ is, to put it mildly, loaded. There are other words that can be applied to elevate still further this concept; perhaps an oil/gas industry definition might read: ‘the necessary ability, knowledge or skill to do something successfully, safely and sustainably in environmentally and commercially sensitive conditions’. We could go on. Indeed, a large section of the commercial training and qualifications industry does go on about competence at great length. Why? A variety of explanations offer themselves, but it is quite possible that since the oil and gas industry started widely employing the competency lexicon 25 years ago, training businesses have cottoned on to it as a means of describing the value they add to the companies and their employees. Or perhaps, under pressure in the 1990s to demonstrate they add value, the training industry taught ‘competence’ to the oil companies. Who knows? But the result has been dramatic. With each disaster, near miss or minor technical problem, the question of proving competence is raised to the executive level. Anecdotally, we understand that a senior oil executive was required to give evidence to the UK Parliament concerning a recent oil spill. Before he could even introduce himself to the committee he was asked by one rather determined Member, whether he could prove himself competent to answer the ensuing questions. He could not. So ‘competence’ is a word that is used widely, often without its connotations being fully understood.

We must remember that ‘competence’ is also a source of very significant commercial and financial advantage to those companies and organisations who seek to demonstrate their ability to define and measure it in others. In one of our cases we examine the creation and remit of the Well Control Institute (WCI) in response to the Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The WCI was intended to be the industry’s response to this most serious incident and the organisation was tasked with developing and promoting a global standard for drilling and well control training in the upstream business. In its attempt to coalesce the global well control industry around a single – and laudable – objective (to improve competence and safety in well control) we can begin to understand the challenges that exist in collectively defining what ‘competence’ means in practice.

The concept of ‘competence’ is inherently linked to another of those education and training buzzwords – ‘standards’. We know we are competent when we reach the requisite standard. But this then begs the question – who defines and owns the standard? We spend a lot of time with people who talk wistfully about having a global standard of one kind or another for the oil and gas industry. But in a locally based workforce in developing nations across the globe, how relevant and applicable is any standard conceived in the United States, Europe or the UK? We are aware of one International Oil Company whose response to the Macondo disaster was to assemble a team in their European headquarters and spend two years writing a single global standard for their operations. However, there is a fundamental problem with the notion of ownership when it comes to standards particularly when we rely on those standards to define and measure competence on a global basis. The idea that a single oil company can impose a standard on a workforce when...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	19.11.2014
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Technik ► Bergbau
	Technik ► Elektrotechnik / Energietechnik
	Wirtschaft
ISBN-10	0-12-801018-5 / 0128010185
ISBN-13	978-0-12-801018-1 / 9780128010181

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