Oil & Gas UK Holds First Skills Summit

Senior figures from the UK oil and gas industry will gather to discuss ways to attract new talent to ensure there is an adequate supply of skilled people to meet the growing demand.

Oil & Gas UK is holding its first ever skills summit, sponsored by EnQuest and Maersk Oil, on Wednesday 19 September at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. There, leaders from Oil & Gas UK’s member companies will meet to generate and capture ideas for a collaborative industry skills strategy.

The meeting builds on the Labour Market Intelligence survey commissioned by OPITO and comes after Oil & Gas UK published its 2012 Demographics Report, which highlighted the need to attract more skilled and experienced ‘mid-career’ workers, as well as the importance of attracting more women to work in the industry.

Oil & Gas UK’s employment and skills issues manager, Dr Alix Thom, said: “We’ve known in the industry for some time that there exists a ‘skills gap’ – where the demand for experienced skilled workers has outstripped the supply. Similarly, we know that women are very much under-represented, particularly but not only, in the offshore workforce and they constitute a significant untapped talent pool.

“The time has come to tackle this issue head on if we are to guarantee a long-term future for the oil and gas industry in the UK.

“The purpose of this skills summit is to gather ideas which will then form a collaborative industry strategy. There are areas such as conversion training for craft workers and technicians, where we can build on existing collaboration and put plans into action almost immediately.

“There are other areas where we need to explore new ideas and agree the best way forward, for example in filling positions in disciplines such as design engineering and project management, which are proving the most difficult to fill.

“We also hope to be able to identify the obstacles which are hindering bringing in new entrants to the industry, find ways to accommodate more apprentices and ensure training opportunities are widely available.”

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Press Release, September 06, 2012