North Sea Oil & Gas Career Site Celebrates First Anniversary

North Sea Oil & Gas Career Site Celebrates First Anniversary

The North Sea oil and gas industry’s official career information website marks its first anniversary today (Friday, January 25th, 2013) by unveiling a new platform dedicated to targeting professionals with transferable skills.

A pan-industry initiative led by Aberdeen headquartered OPITO, the sector’s skills, learning and workforce development body, myoilandgascareer.com became the North Sea industry’s official information portal for finding out about working in the sector when it launched in January 2012.

Attracting upwards of 9,000 visitors a month, the site provides the vital link between industry and education, contextualising school courses with interactive exercises and curriculum-based information on the energy sector which is accessible to more than 3,000 schools across the UK.

Now, to meet the industry’s need to fill the mid-gap of maturity and experience, OPITO has worked with The Urquhart Partnership to expand the site to include independent, unbiased information for workers with knowledge and experience from other, potentially declining industries interested in transferring their skills into oil and gas.

Larraine Boorman, managing director of OPITO, said: “Our industry is in a prime position to provide long term, exciting careers for a wide range of people at a time when other sectors are declining and there is high unemployment, particularly among 16-24 year olds.

OPITO has always seen the value in engaging with school pupils across the UK to promote the diversity of careers within the sector and develop joint education strategies which encourage the uptake of key science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

In the short-term though, the lack of transition training to capture transferable skills is the biggest human resources issue for the oil and gas industry. The mid-gap of maturity and experience is where the problem lies. Widening the pool of talent available to the industry is essential if the recruitment difficulties identified by employers are to be addressed.”

To meet the industry’s need to address this short-term need, myoilandgascareer.com now includes information on the wide range of careers the sector can offer experienced workers looking to switch from industries like shipbuilding, automotive engineering or the Armed Forces, into oil and gas.

It includes case studies on real people currently working in oil and gas, information on training and development, a guide to which career may best suit an individual’s skills set and impartial information on the range of entry routes open to skilled workers.

Designed by the industry for the industry, this free resource is very much about attracting and informing the talent that the sector needs to secure going forward,” said Mrs Boorman.

We have seen tremendous support for the site in the last 12 months with many of the sector’s biggest employers getting involved. In order to take it to the next level we want to see even more engagement from industry.

By working together we can provide an immediate and effective solution to the industry’s demand for skilled competent workers who can use their experience to further their careers and drive the oil and gas sector forward.

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Press Release, January 28, 2013