Monday 10 September 2012

Oil and gas firms must “embrace” workers from other sectors

Oil and gas firms in Aberdeen must look beyond the industry’s engineers and “embrace” those from other sectors.

The comment made by an engineering recruitment firm follows the Chancellor's announcement last week about tax breaks for older North Sea oil and gas fields.

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers claimed there is a shortage of skilled workers in the industry, which it said could threaten Aberdeen’s status as the oil and gas capital of Europe.

It suggested around 120,000 new recruits would be needed to replace 50% of the workforce who are over 45 years old.

Keith Lewis, Managing Director of Matchtech (pictured) said: “The simple fact is there just aren’t enough engineers with oil and gas experience to fulfil this demand. Oil companies must look beyond the current crop of oil and gas engineers and begin to embrace those from other industry sectors and now, with the Chancellor’s latest announcement today, is the best time to do this. Aberdeen has a wealth of highly skilled engineers and by capitalising on the breadth of transferable skills out there it can maintain its position at the forefront of the energy industry.”

He claims the city must attract more than 12 times its current number of employees within the next decade to meet the demand.