By: Mark Crawford

Jan/Feb 2010

Finding and retaining high-quality employees with appropriate skill sets is one of the best ways to have a positive impact on your bottom line — especially in a down economy. However, it’s not always an easy thing to do in the oil and gas business, when many workers left the industry during the recession.

To create the technically-skilled labor force they need in North Central Texas, a group of 14 energy companies joined forces with North Central Texas College (NCTC) in Bowie to assess their critical operational needs.

 To create the technically-skilled labor force they need in North Central Texas, a group of 14 energy companies joined forces with North Central Texas College (NCTC) in Bowie to assess their critical operational needs. They were especially concerned about the lack of oil and gas industry technicians in the existing labor pool, as well as the need to provide advanced cross-training opportunities for the workers they already employed. Need-assessment surveys by the participants showed a strong call for new employees, with nearly 1,200 new hires expected by 2013. The surveys also showed a demand for commercial drivers (200 job openings over the next five years).

“Because of the current economic and environmental climate,” says Lynn Grayson, an applications engineer with Invalco, one of the participating companies, “the oil and gas industry needs as many trained professionals as possible coming out into the workforce.”

A proactive decision

The result of these brainstorming sessions was the creation of North Central Texas College’s new Oil and Gas Production Technology Program. Petroleum computer applications, recovery and production methods, natural gas production, oilfield hydraulics, petroleum instrumentation, well workover, well completions, and natural gas processing are some of the key topics that are covered. In addition to developing technical knowledge of gas operations, students also take courses to develop their communication and team-building skills.

A tremendous need for this kind of program exists in North Central Texas, especially with the growing interest in the Bartlett Shale. “The oil companies told me they were hiring 100 people off the street, investing thousands of dollars in their training, only to see over half of them walk away, not interested in the business,” says Billy Giles, program coordinator for the Oil and Gas Production Technology Program. “Another reason we need this program is that this business missed an entire generation of people looking to enter the field — this was due to lack of jobs and depressed oil prices, governments attitude toward supporting drilling in the U.S., and this country’s dependency on foreign oil.”  

With his long history of building successful training programs, Giles is an excellent choice to lead the program. “Most of my past has been developing training programs for worldwide semiconductor companies,” says Giles. “In my experience over the last 30 years, I have never seen this level of industry support, for this kind of program, made before. Many companies say they support educational and training activities, but it turns out to be a donation of outdated equipment or materials that are no longer relevant to their needs. Not in this case — these oil and gas companies are investing a lot of time and resources to support this vision.”

Donations from partnering oil companies (as well as the community) have helped finance a new 7,000- square-foot facility that includes a vocational training area and a large, multi-purpose classroom designed expressly for oil and gas technical courses.

“EOG, Energy Services, Encana, Allied Production, Invalco and Bell Supply are just some of the companies that have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in support,” says Giles. “The generous hard-cash donations and current state-of-the-art equipment that have been provided to NCTC for training have allowed us to put together a quality training program. It is already serving as a model for others to follow (several schools from Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as Penn State, that are interested in establishing similar programs have recently toured the campus).

The biggest challenge was developing the curriculum materials (an ongoing process). Because of a lack of textbooks and other educational materials in these subject areas, each course had to be developed with strong oversight from participating companies. “We have been very impressed with the organizational aspect of the new course outline,” says Grayson.

Giles hopes the program can sustain an enrollment of 75 to 100 students. “The need is there and as the years go by and more and more of the industry’s employees retire, there will be an increasing demand,” he says. “Our industry partners are constantly fine-tuning our curriculum to meet their training needs. As technology advances and moves to the oilfield, then so will demand for our students to be trained on these new technologies.” Graduates of the program with no prior field experience will be able to enter core jobs such as floor hand at an annual salary of about $40,000. Those who are already in the field and have good experience could earn as much as $95,000 as tool pushers. Additional education at the university level will allow motivated employees to advance into upper management roles.

If students are willing to be mobile, they should have no problem gaining employment after they graduate,” says Giles.

Overwhelming response
Giles, who was anticipating an initial enrollment of 20 students when the program started in the fall of 2008, was delighted when over 65 students signed up. Although things have tightened up a bit this year there are still more than 75 students in the program.

Graduates of the program with no prior field experience will be able to enter core jobs such as floor hands.

Giles continues to be impressed by the commitment of his industry partners in making the program a success. “If we need something, it’s just a phone call away,” he says. “Every student entering our program has received some type of scholarship from donations from oil companies or individuals supporting our program.”

NCTC’s industry partners are equally excited about the future. “This program will help train the next generation of skilled employees who will be vital for the future of the oil and natural gas industry,” says Liz Ivers, director of public resources for EOG Resources, one of the participating companies.

Although things have tightened up a bit this year there are still more than 75 students in the program.

“The near-term benefits are having newly-trained graduates coming to work in our industry,” says Grayson. “The longer-term benefits will be seeing the positive impacts these motivated individuals will have on the oil and gas industry in the future.”

Toby Sides, an employee with Encana, is currently enrolled in the Oil and Gas Production Technology Program. “I have worked in the oil and gas field since 2004,” says Sides. “I know the basics, but want to gain a better knowledge about what’s going on down the hole. I have always been interested in natural gas plant processing and well completions — these courses are very interesting. This is a big, wide industry — when I graduate, my broader spectrum of knowledge will open doors to other positions I wouldn’t be considered for otherwise.”