New Industry Talent: Providing A Roadmap To Career Success

By Kyle Pitman and Meghan Bowers, DRIFT Offshore

It’s a recurring question with no straightforward answer: how do we consistently attract new talent into our industry to help drive the energy transition?

The expanding nature of the global renewables sector is exposing a skills gap at a time when a safe and successful transition depends on having the right people, with the right skills, in the right positions.

The high degree of skills transferability from oil & gas operations is an important part of the solution – and, of course, is an underpinning feature of what is termed a ‘just and fair’ transition to a new energy era.

But at the same time, it is imperative that we continue to bring young people into renewables as part of the long-term remedy, not least because of the ageing workforce profile of the energy industry as a whole.

We need to be successful in pursuing such a strategy because it is essential to continuity, and enables industry players to shape their long-term development strategies confident in the knowledge that the resources required to execute them are available.

There is a positive backdrop to the challenge in the sense that the renewables industry holds appeal for many young people in principle; they recognise its fundamental role in addressing climate change, an issue which elicits strong and passionate views among our younger generations in particular.

It does not have to counter the problems the legacy oil and gas sector has faced in recent years, when its old reputation as a ‘dirty’ industry may have undermined its efforts to recruit young people, despite the huge efforts made by the industry to move beyond that perception and its continuing role in  the transition.

But renewables still needs to make the most of that advantage and back it up with practical measures. Marketing our industry successfully to young people is one thing, but there needs to be investment in a cohesive, long-term approach.

The solution, in part, lies in providing cost-effective training support that serves to create the required pool of skills for the future. Competent and skilled individual are essential for the planning, preparation and delivery of projects, and we need a holistic approach to develop them.

At DRIFT Offshore, we advocate a model in which individuals – new-starts, certainly, but also personnel which varying degrees of experience – are provided with the necessary support to map out their careers. It enables them to formulate a plan that equips them with the skills and hands-on experience they will need for the future.

The energy transition presents numerous new possibilities, but those can only be explored and converted into practical reality with the right workforce in place. A focused training framework and a demonstration of sustained support for individuals to pursue their career ambitions are key in meeting that objective.

Those principles are central to our work at DRIFT, where we believe professional development is a key component whenever we look to add to our talent portfolio for resourcing projects worldwide.

We make it a priority to invest in our people and provide opportunities for continuous learning and development, helping to ensure we attract – and retain – quality personnel.

It is part of a progressive approach that also fosters collaboration and teamwork, encourages people to promote fresh ideas and innovative solutions, offers project opportunities in different regions around the world – and, of course, prioritises workplace safety.

We believe these, together, create a powerful incentive for fresh talent to look favourably towards the renewables world as a career option.

But it needs to be augmented by a targeted training framework and a means for people to visualise and pursue a clear career roadmap, whether they are at the start of their professional journey or further down the line.

Critically, it should represent an added motivation for young talent to embark on a productive and rewarding professional life in a new energy world, and in the process help our industry to bridge the skills gap – to future-proof its ambitions.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE