BLOG: Laid Off Energy Workers May Find Opportunities in the Classroom
Valerie Jone
The state of the industry is always the topic of discussion at any oil and gas conference – at least it has been for the past two years. And a dwindling workforce also lends itself to talks of hiring and employment, or lack thereof.
While attending an energy conference Oct. 20, I chatted with Marshall Campbell, who is vice president of HR at Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, TX. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, he shared that he actually wasn’t attending the conference to acquire clients; instead he was looking to find petrochemical professors.
Let me explain.
Campbell was attending the conference on behalf of the Community College Petrochemical Initiative (CCPI). The CCPI, funded with a grant from Exxon Mobil Corp., is made up of community colleges and school districts in the Greater Houston and Texas Gulf Coast area. Each provides skills training for local petrochemical businesses and industries. The CCPI also looks to hire full-time and part-time professors from the petrochemical industry – from workers who have been laid off or plan on retiring.
“The CCPI provides an excellent opportunity for retired or laid off petrochemical workers to find meaningful employment teaching in their area of specialty,” Campbell said. “There are teaching opportunities in process technology, safety, drafting, electrical, welding, pipefitting, millwright, instrumentation and many other areas. Teaching these courses can be extremely satisfying as instructors help bridge the talent gap.”
This may come as a blessing for laid off workers who have struggled to find employment during the industry downturn. They would have the opportunity to train the future generation of petrochemical workers, earning them a paycheck and allowing them to depart their knowledge and mentor younger energy professionals.
Many of the teaching positions require an associate degree and years of work experience. The number of years varies.
This isn’t the first instance of displaced energy workers having an opportunity to share their knowledge in the classroom. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced it would utilize $17 million to develop a pathway for oil and gas workers to retrain as teachers.
Campbell said by attending energy conferences, he hopes to connect with people who can perhaps connect him with people who would be interested in teaching. I dare say we may have some readers who are interested. So here’s my indirect way of spreading the word! For more information on the CCPI, visit their website.
Remote working conditions enabled through the adoption of IIOT [Industrial Internet of Things] within oil and gas will create more jobs and attract more people to the industry, instead of reducing the number of workers in the sector, according to Piyush Sheth, Honeywell Process Solutions marketing director for process measurement and control.
“There’s a lot less people and youngsters who are willing to come to this industry because they all want to go IT and some of the other areas,” said Sheth, speaking to Rigzone from the sidelines of the Honeywell
“However what this IIOT is doing is actually helping and giving an option to the new generation to work in some of the fancy locations and still apply all of their industry or automation knowledge, because … they don’t need to work through those hazard area locations. So it’s actually helping in creating and attracting more jobs instead of having a risk of jobs,” he added.
Sheth also championed the safety aspects of shifting people to remote locations and suggested that training workers to use these stations wouldn’t be fundamentally difficult, but may require some time.
“The interfaces that they see … are not necessarily going to be different,” Sheth said.
“It’s really a mindset change more than any other training, and like any other areas, mindset will take a while, but we see that the industry is really adopting very fast,” he added.
Houston’s Oil Industry Eyes Recovery, Job Creation
Valerie Jones
Jenny Philip, senior manager, economic research for the Greater Houston Partnership, discussed the future of Houston’s energy workforce at WorkforceNEXT’s Fall Summit Oct. 20. Houston has lost 24,700 mining and logging jobs since the beginning of the industry downturn (December 2014).
“Houston is the energy capital of the world,” said Philip. “We love to boast about that in $100 oil, but we also have to own that in $26 oil or our current $52 oil.”
We’re on the verge of approaching $54 per barrel oil, which Philip said is when many energy analysts believe we will start seeing more exploration and production activity and hiring.
In a September meeting, OPEC agreed to cut oil production, but Philip said market fundamentals are holding back a surge in oil prices.
“If you look at supply and demand, you have to take into account not only the production that is already occurring, but the amount of surplus capacity that has been built up throughout the course of the downturn,” she said. “Right now, we’re at about three billion [barrels] and we’re not able to draw down on these inventories in a significant way until next year.”
Those aren’t great market fundamentals to support a huge oil price increase, but there is movement toward a $55-$60 oil price environment, she added.
Assuming the price trough of $26 oil in Feb. 2016 is the lowest the industry will see this downturn, Philip said typically it will take two or three quarters to see drilling pick back up, which is happening now. Two or three quarters after that, we’ll see an uptick in hiring.
“We’re not going to see a huge hiring binge. As the industry recovers, significant hiring is still being held off,” Philip said. “The concern with energy industry hiring is that a lot of the technological advances that were employed during the downturn actually cannibalized human capital. The projects that were hiring were the ones looking at technologies to take people out of the workforce.”
Similar to adjusted expectations to the rig count and oil price, the industry has to adjust its expectation of the head count post-downturn.
Moving into 2017 and 2018, Houston isn’t expecting to see a recovery like it did coming out of the Great Recession in 2009, said Philip.
“What took us into the Great Recession was a financial crisis,” she said. “What took us into this downturn was specifically about energy. Houston’s employment continued to grow, even with the volatility of oil prices.”
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