Member Article

More oil and gas sector help needed for young jobseekers

A young man from Washington who has spent thousands of pounds of his own money to get the qualifications he needs to break into the oil and gas industry is appealing for companies to take on more young people to help solve skills shortages.

Grant Barker, 22, has spent £2,500 in the last year gaining the survival, induction, Level 1 rigging and rope access certificates that experts said he needed to gain entry level into the industry, only to find there are no jobs to be had.

A keen sportsman and a qualified lifeguard and swimming instructor with a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science, his ambition is to move into a physical job in the oil and gas industry, working at height, as a rigger or roustabout, or in non-destructive testing.

According to a study by OPITO, the oil and gas industry’s skills body and the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board, more than half of firms in the sector identify skill shortages as their biggest challenge. OPITO predicts at least 15,000 new staff will need to be recruited by 2016.

In a bid to get more experience and log enough hours to get his Level 2 certificates, Grant is currently living in his VW camper van and working at Lyme Regis, in a job that involves rope access cliff-side work for a company that is stabilising the eroding coastline.

“Organisations like OPITO talk about skills shortages and say companies must take on new people and train them up to replace the ageing workforce as it retires, but I just don’t see where that is happening on the ground,” he said.

“I’ve paid for all my own training by a reputable organisation, the Industrial Ropes Access Training Association, and I’m taking temporary engineering and rigging work wherever I can find it, just to get more experience. I’ll go anywhere and do pretty much anything to get a start, and I’ll even work for nothing for a while to prove my worth, but no one is taking young people on.

“Over the past year I’ve approached hundreds of companies from Aberdeen to Azerbaijan and registered with all the oil and gas jobsites and recruitment agencies. I must have sent thousands of letters and CVs out, but with no luck.

“There must be hundreds of hopefuls like me, but there is no point in encouraging people to train up for the industry either through self-funded training or apprenticeships, if there are no entry level jobs available. It would be great to think that the bigger companies could offer young people a leg up into the industry, and solve their own skills shortages at the same time.”

For more information contact Grant Barker on 07838630090 or email: grant-333@hotmail.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Julie Brammer .