Tackling the skills shortage

Getting to grips with the lack of highly skilled oil and gas workers is a matter of urgency for the industry. Hugh Williams, Chief Executive of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), explains how his organization is taking a proactive approach to the problem.

Economic growth is the aim of every country eager to improve its general well being. It ensures the future, is the lifeblood of the market sector, boosts the expansion of companies and thus encourages their employees. Fortunately, the marine contracting industry is currently thriving and can look forward to its workload remaining at a very high level for some time to come.

On the face of it, this is good news for our industry but, as everyone is fully aware, success rarely happens without causing some problems. The major challenge facing our industry at this time is a serious skills shortage. In other words, we are perilously short of the most important commodity of all – people. The industry is extremely busy and expects to remain so for a number of years. Many companies are experiencing challenges in recruiting sufficiently trained and skilled personnel for their projects all over the world. This is placing significant pressure on their growth and ability to deliver services.

As the international trade association representing over 350 offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies in 45 countries, the IMCA is eager to help its members address this skills shortage. Our members are involved in many aspects of offshore marine contracting, including pipe-laying, heavy lifting, diving, remotely operated vehicles (ROV) operations and offshore surveying – largely carried out from dynamically positioned (DP) vessels, as well as other marine operations, offshore supply and support of many other kinds.

At the start of this year, we focused attention on the skills shortage by highlighting the projected numbers of trained personnel required by the expanding marine contracting industry over the next 2-3 years. Our members have provided some practical estimates of the possible growth of their businesses – for example, orders for new build construction vessels, drilling rigs, saturation diving spreads and remotely operated vehicles. From these estimates we are able to extrapolate some of the marine contracting industry’s recruitment needs over the next few years; the new tonnage needs to be manned and supported by highly skilled professionals in order to meet the stringent requirements of the market with regard to both execution and safety.

The figures thrown up by the industry certainly make for interesting and compelling reading (see boxout: Big numbers), and these numbers do not include the large numbers of additional air diving personnel and the many other deck, catering and ancillary crew, or onshore and engineering support personnel required to operate the vessels.

Just looking ahead a couple of years, the figures pose a serious challenge to an industry already finding it difficult to recruit, train and retain skilled personnel. For example, the worldwide diving schools can perhaps train about 100 new saturation divers a year. That there is a ‘skills shortage’ is widely acknowledged. By providing firm, verifiable estimates of anticipated growth, we are highlighting the seriousness and complexity of the challenge faced, not only by IMCA members worldwide, but also by all stakeholders in the offshore oil industry. Indeed, the future health and growth of a number of industries, not just the oil and gas industry, may be directly affected by a shortage of trained personnel in the coming years.

Finding solutions

It is not enough for a responsible organization such as ours to acknowledge that we have a problem, hold up our hands in horror and look for someone else to find a solution – a form of industrial divine intervention. Having been an active participant in the skills shortage debate, we now aim to move on apace. Traditionally, we have provided information on the supply side of employment, such as what the job entails, what the syllabus is and where to apply. Now we’re moving up a gear to really stimulate that all-important supply side.

Currently, the association assists in assuring that new recruits fit the industry as well as possible by defining entry requirements and syllabus detail for students. Thereafter the IMCA training and competence framework describes how employees enter and move forward in their careers. IMCA also provides careers information to help potential new recruits understand what the offshore industry has to offer in the way of a lifelong career.

Our focus is, naturally, on the benefits of a career in marine construction: the training, challenges, multi-disciplinary atmosphere, defined career path with future opportunities (both offshore an onshore) and transferable skills that are gained by all employees. This year, the IMCA has defined the huge demand of the marine construction industry for a wide variety of personnel. The intent now is to introduce new entrants globally to the specialist schools and training establishments who should offer, and fill, more places and thus attract more applicants to the jobs advertised in the industry.

IMCA is doing more to describe the huge challenges, opportunities and pleasures in this industry in order to encourage new entrants from a wide variety of backgrounds. We have committed additional funding to work on publicizing the exciting careers available in the offshore industry and, through this, to increase recruiting substantially. These efforts are being rolled out through our four regional sections – the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and Africa, and the Middle East and India, as well as across all our four divisions – marine/specialist vessel operations, offshore diving, hydrographic survey and remote systems and ROVs.

Working actively to meet the challenge

The industry – for this is a pan-industry problem and a global one too – must deal with this major shortage in skilled personnel, which is causing problems for all parties at present, and which is being addressed through various initiatives. Recruiting from a competitor will not contribute to anything except rising costs in the industry. Raising the cost level above where we are today will not be good for the industry given the high cost increases we experienced during 2006. The challenge is to improve the way we sell the industry to available skilled personnel and to students so we can start filling vacancies.

We have to ask ourselves the obvious question – where are these much needed new people to come from? In the short term we are looking to publicize the need for skilled personnel as widely as we can – to industry ‘returners’ (those lost to the industry during the lean days); to those currently at marine and engineering universities and training schools; to those in parallel industries with transferable skills (the armed forces facing transition to civilian employment, manufacturing and construction); via recruitment websites; and we area also looking to countries such as Poland, with no oil and gas industry, but with a strong maritime heritage to see how we can work with their training colleges to encourage students to look to the marine contracting industry for employment opportunities.

Attracting the next generation

In the long-term, of course, industry recruits have to come from the next generation, so with this in mind we are taking steps to address the supply of new personnel by updating our careers material and pushing it strongly at school, college and university-level. This will be rolled out globally, working with our regional sections.

IMCA’s long-running series of careers leaflets was reviewed and updated last year and republished as illustrated factsheets covering positions across the industry. Each one sets out the education and qualifications required, the skills and training required, medical fitness, working conditions and prospects, and how to set about finding out about educational establishments. Each of our leaflets goes into the same sort of detail and all have been widely acclaimed by those within the industry and the educational establishments serving it (see boxout: Factsheet).

New case studies and educational brochure

We are developing a new set of case studies too. These combine personal descriptions of what each job entails with details on the individual’s own career, the work opportunities they are presented with, the range of projects they’ve worked on and other highlights such as travel and global experience. We want those looking at the website to get a real feel for the job through the eyes of someone actively involved. The first of these online case studies, covering offshore survey disciplines, is now live.

We are commissioning a brochure aimed at those at school, college and university covering the vast opportunities offered by a career offshore, stressing that is a career; the offshore and onshore future opportunities; the high levels of training and the transferable skills it develops. We are now working with schools, colleges, universities and other education establishments as well as careers and recruitment websites to make these materials more widely available to students and other potential recruits.

We are not working in isolation – far from it. The IMCA secretariat and committees are working through various organizations and networks in pursuit of the goal of ensuring that skills shortages become a thing of the past. Ours is an industry with a strong future, providing employment opportunities in plenty. We need everyone to spread the message wider and deeper.