Futurizing the Continuing Education Program For SPE Members

Abstract

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines. Abstract The SPE was one of the first technical societies to formally initiate a continuing education and refresher course program on the national level. Although this program was enthusiastically supported at the start, a decrease of enthusiasm has recently been observed. It is hoped that a review of the program at this time will help to renew program at this time will help to renew enthusiasm among the membership. In this paper the author, who recently taught the paper the author, who recently taught the SPE Advanced Reservoir Engineering course for the LA Basin Section (last course organized by the late Floyd Schoonover), discusses some of the problems that are arising and offers some possible solutions to them. possible solutions to them. The suggestions detailed below are concerned with type of material and technical content of the courses (whether they should be practical or theoretical), fields covered, types of presentation (short course, study group, forum, etc.), duration of each course, spacing of various courses, desired varieties, and requirements of small sections versus large sections. Included in the Paper are suggestions offered by students who have taken some of the SPE courses. Introduction The inability of a professional man to keep abreast of the new technical developments in his field and to retain the knowledge he gained through his formal schooling is termed technical obsolescence. The problem is not new; it is as old as civilization itself. However, because of its increasing intensity in recent years, we have now become more aware of the problem. We now live in an age where technical development in any given decade is equal to, if not greater than, all prior technical development. The traditional means of warding off technical obsolescence has been continuing education. For the reason noted above, this is more important today than it has ever been. Today, as a consequence of the ever-increasing production of new knowledge, the conventional production of new knowledge, the conventional methods and tools used by the professional man to solve his technical problems are no longer sufficient. They must continually be augmented by up-to-date information. Almost all technical societies have met this challenge squarely by providing continuing education programs for their members.