Warren R. True
Chief Technology Editor—LNG/Gas
Processing
For many years, well more than my 30 with it, Oil & Gas Journal has conducted surveys of the companies that comprise the major oil and gas industry segments.
Refineries, gas plants, construction, enhanced oil recovery, economics, ethylene, production, major projects. The databases built from these surveys help OGJ editors understand the industries they cover and explain trends and patterns.
OGJ's data, however, rarely touch on people in those industries: their jobs, their companies, and their roles in each. It's not that people don't matter—far from it. It's simply that OGJ's data reflect its editorial focus: industry and company trends, concerns, and issues.
But, other companies do take the pulses of the people who work in the plants, on the platforms, in the fields, and along the pipelines. One such is John M. Campbell & Co., Norman, Okla., one of the world's largest and best-known oil and gas training companies.
Its recent survey of more than 5,000 engineers—"2011 Global Survey of Facilities Engineers"—has revealed some interesting attitudes about, among other things, engineers' careers, e-learning preferences, and social media use. And the survey results highlight some learning trends JMC finds troubling.
Pay ranks first
This was a global survey, with fewer than 25% of participants working in North America, said JMC. The rest were spread across the major oil and gas sites of the world.
Those surveyed were asked, among other questions, what was most important about their jobs, how much training they received annually, and in what type of setting and via what media do they learn best. JMC then grouped the answers according to how long respondents had worked in the industry: 0-5 years; 6-10; 11-20; and more than 20.
It probably shocks no one that pay ranked first in order of importance among pay, benefits, job location, job flex time, and quick advancement opportunities. JMC commented, however, that when you dig into the numbers, "young engineers (1-5 years) place quick advancement opportunities over job location." For all respondents, however, job location—not benefits—came in second to pay.
JMC's primary concern—not surprisingly—is with respondents' attitudes about ongoing training. More than 40% said 2 weeks/year of training were available to them; more than 60% said 2-3 weeks. Given the "size of the assets they are working on, is this enough?" wondered JMC, adding that the cost of not having someone skilled in his or her position can be high.
JMC also found the survey results related to on-the-job training "alarming": While more than 43% of respondents said they learned most on the job, more than 72% of respondents said they did not have mentors in their companies.
Coaching and mentoring on the job, long after face-to-face training is over, is very important to "crystallizing the knowledge learned in the classroom," commented JMC.
Learning via less traditional media was an important topic for JMC's survey, as you might expect. Among respondents, about 50% are using social media in their jobs, but at the same time, 42% said they use none at all.
An age profile of the respondents might explain these numbers. But the issue may be mute: Just how effective social media are in capturing, promoting, or retaining business is a broader question to which many industries—including mine—have yet to find a quantified answer.
For other newer modes for learning, the positives seem more solid: 60% of respondents said they might or would like to receive course content via a mobile application (think iPhone or iPad, here; Android or Blackberry). And more than 72% said they are comfortable learning on line.
Learning
JMC is clearly learning a great deal about industry professionals who have taken or may need to take ongoing training, either formally in a classroom or less formally via other avenues.
One avenue for learning not covered in the JMC survey is trade publications, such as Oil & Gas Journal. No, OGJ doesn't offer training, but daily and weekly it presents information that "trains" readers.
I don't think JMC would argue. It comments at one point that it's "not a competition between any one delivery method; the data tell us that it's got to be a blend."
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