Tired of sky-high gasoline and diesel prices? Join the club. The ongoing chaos of the wars in Iran and Ukraine continue to disrupt global supply chains, leading to impacts being felt at fuel pumps across the country and around the world.
These conflicts have revealed the ongoing dependence of the world on fossil fuels. While increasing electrification and alternatives, like wind and solar, continue to gain steam, demand for energy—from all sources—continues to increase, especially in countries building hyperscale data centers as quickly as possible in pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) dominance.
The price shocks being felt as a result of these ongoing wars clearly highlight the need for increased diversification and better supply-side management. While the oil and gas industry struggles to navigate these trying times, it’s important that oil and gas companies keep an eye on addressing a critical supply problem of their own: the number of highly skilled workers they employ.
Like all major industries across the U.S., the oil and gas industry struggles to maintain a sufficient number of highly skilled workers to keep up with demand. That’s why keeping a finger on the pulse of oil and gas training remains important.
According to a Matterport article, all “oil and gas training programs share the same core goals:”
- “Safety and incident prevention: Every training initiative in oil and gas ties back to keeping people safe. Training should build real capability before workers are introduced to real hazards.”
- “Regulatory compliance: Training must satisfy evolving local and international regulations…Requirements are extensive and shift regularly.”
- “Operational readiness: Workers need to be competent and productive from their first day on-site.”
- “Workforce development at scale: Organizations must deliver consistent training across geographically dispersed assets, often staffed by different contractor groups from one site to the next.”
Unfortunately, “[t]he traditional training models that most organizations rely on often struggle to meet all four goals consistently.” For example, traditional classroom and eLearning training “establish baseline knowledge and scale relatively well across large workforces.”
However, the oil and gas industry is unique in terms of its equipment and inherent dangers. Traditional training methods often fail to fully prepare workers because they “don’t expose workers to the facility or equipment layout they’ll encounter in real-world detail.”
That’s why comprehensive, effective oil and gas training must focus on hands-on skill development using real industrial components workers will encounter in the field. So how do oil and gas companies improve their focus on technical skills?
For new and current employees, the answer is effective technical training. Oil and gas workers need both fundamental knowledge and hands-on technical skills with real industrial equipment they’ll encounter on the job. Be sure to check out Bayport Technical’s wide variety of hands-on oil and gas training systems to take your oil and gas training to the next level!
