Shield your skills for future growth

Abstract

Despite recent economic turmoil, global demand for resources is expected to continue its surge well into the coming decades. The international supply of LNG is likely to form a crucial part of the future global resources trade, and Australia’s oil and gas sector could face a paralysing shortfall of skills. For global engineering service providers such as Production Services Network (PSN), the search for skills now needs to look beyond the oil and gas industry to grow skilled ranks. Recruits are being found in the water industry, the automotive industry and in the UK, PSN has had particular success in recruiting from the retired military. Adopting entrepreneurial and innovative strategies to attract and retain engineering staff has become business-as-usual for service providers that are accepting an increasing amount of responsibility from international oil companies. But with growth comes risk. As a business grows, transitioning mature engineers from unrelated industries and introducing young graduates or building local expertise in developing countries presents enormous safety risks and challenges. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is being able to deliver industry-leading safety performance while maintaining a robust business model in a fiercely competitive services market. In the coming years the skills challenge will remain unrelenting. In a relatively small skills market like Australia, future skills solutions will be found in using network technologies to send work to where the people are—rather than the other way around. Solutions will be found by understanding the needs of generation-Y and by continuing to build incentives to retain women in the engineering workforce. The employment profile of a 21st century oil and gas engineering services provider is changing fast. Is Australia keeping up?