As Lone Star College System’s associate vice chancellor of academic affairs, Marshall Schott is familiar with plummeting oil prices in the Gulf Coast region and throughout the U.S. and how those fluctuations impact the labor market. Regardless, the need for skilled labor to fill essential jobs in the oil and gas, petrochemical and related construction industries remain critical, he said.
“We’re a bifurcated industry in the sense we have many people who have entered the workforce in the past five to 10 years, but we have even more — as much as 50 to 55 percent — who are eligible to retire in the next five years,” Schott said.
Moderating a panel discussion titled “Workforce Track: The War for Skilled Labor” at the Energy Construction Forum held recently in Galveston, Texas, Schott noted public colleges and universities are experiencing a large increase in enrollment in STEM and STEM-related occupational fields, as well as in the mid-skills space involving the crafts, which is good news to Shell Oil Co.’s David Esquibel.
In his role as Shell’s workforce development initiative manager, Esquibel works with 30 community colleges, overseeing scholarship programs for associate degrees, dual credit programs and various STEM outreach activities focused on raising awareness of opportunities in the two-year career pathway.
Workforce development is a “core strategy” at Shell, according to Esquibel.
“A lot of times our industry is misunderstood,” Esquibel, a panelist, explained. Esquibel’s team works with K-12 students and educators to “plant seeds” about careers within the energy industry, focusing on the economic advantage of a two-year STEM career path.
“The average salary range for these jobs is $86,000 per year without overtime, so the six-figure potential is there,” he said. “You can get middle and high school students really excited about our industry and about those career options,” added panelist Michael Alvarez. “But if these teachers and counselors are not familiar with our industry’s career opportunities, they can’t continue to promote, inspire and keep them interested in those career paths.”
As workforce development initiative lead for Shell, Alvarez is responsible for developing integrated education initiatives and leveraging university recruitment pro-grams and business-funded research projects for the U.S.
Shell’s managed dual credit programs, Esquibel added, are a vital tool in developing talented high school students into potential mid-skills employees.
“These students not only earn a diploma for their high school educations but also credits within the community college system,” Esquibel said. “A good number of those fall into the craft areas like process tech, welding and instrumentation. These are definitely areas where there’s a technical shortage, and that shortage isn’t going to go away.”
Shell’s “Energize Your Future” website (www.shell.us/environmental-society) provides another tool that familiarizes students, parents and teachers with available mid-skills careers.
As Shell continues to develop financial and educational programs to promote STEM skills in its talent pipeline, Esquibel and Alvarez agree an industrywide approach is necessary to keep the energy and construction sectors’ workforce strong.
“We used to view this ‘war on the work-force’ as Shell against our competitors, but that’s not how we should view it anymore,” Alvarez said. “Look at this as an opportunity to bring unity to the industry.
“It’s a perilous moment, and the window of opportunity is closing. Shell and other companies are doing everything we can within our community college systems, but it’s all hands on deck. We can’t do this alone.”
For ongoing information on the war for skilled labor, visit BICMagazine.com.