Over the past year it is clear the skills shortage is really starting to affect the Energy and Oil & Gas industry.

In a previous post, we covered ‘Is your company prepared for an oil and gas skills shortage’ – we now focus on how companies are taking on this challenge.

The 2019 Oil & Gas employment outlook guide gave insight into the skills shortage this year. According to this guide 4/5 employees feel comfortable applying for jobs as they know there is an extensive lack of skills within the industry.

90% of employers who also took part in this survey stated that the skills shortage is now starting to have a negative effect on their business.

So, it’s time for companies to combat this concern.

Research published by OPITO this year stated by 2025 it is estimated the UK oil and gas industry needs to attract over 25,000 new people with around 4,500 in roles that don’t currently exist. OPITO also believe that up-skilling companies’ current workforce will improve efficiency and enable room for extra responsibilities as the industry progresses.

Companies now seem to be making their best effort to try and reverse the skills shortage through providing new training and opportunity. For example many service companies have been supporting the skills shortage by offering apprenticeships and trainee ships creating new opportunity for their next generation of workers.

Re-shaping the industry can only be done through offering the right support. By 2025 the workforce split is going to be 75% technical and 25% business.

New technology will create great improvement and demand new skills, especially with the likes of virtual and augmented reality, robotics, machine learning, data analytics and cloud computing.

This year productivity within engineering and design has dropped by 20%, a trend that surely has to be reversed if the industry is to cope with the level of technical work required over the next few years.

Also, when you consider the striking figures that show 75% of all oil and gas industry managers are over the age of 40 and to two thirds of those are over 50, the pressure to develop management skills is of paramount importance. A younger more diversely talented workforce will put pressure on managers to coach, motivate and lead in a dramatically changing business environment.

We work in an industry that has never shirked a challenge. The next few years offer perhaps the biggest set of challenges we have ever seen in terms of people and skills. With the development of new skills will come new talent enabling the industry to continue to thrive.