Alberta Immigrant Integration
Alberta Immigrant Integration into the Petroleum Industry
Alberta is now in the midst of the serious labour crunch experts
have been predicting. In the last ten years, the province has moved
from an era of more workers than work, to an era of more work than
workers. From a demographic perspective, this will continue to be
the case for at least the next decade.
Petroleum industry employers have traditionally secured the
talent required by hiring it away from competitors, service
providers, other geographic locations, or other industries - mostly
by escalating worker compensation. Though this has been relatively
effective to date, it is not a sustainable solution.
A key opportunity for Alberta's oil and gas industry to address
worker demand and minimize the negative impacts associated with
current and future labour concerns is to increase the participation
of workers currently under-represented in the workforce - i.e.
Aboriginals, women and internationally trained workers.
The overall objective of the Alberta Immigrant Integration
into the Petroleum Industry project is to determine the
tools, resources, and support processes needed by the oil and gas
industry to increase the employment and retention of immigrants
already living in Alberta into the upstream petroleum industry.
Primary and secondary research was conducted; first with the
petroleum industry (from a labour demand perspective), and then
with immigrants and immigrant-serving agencies (from a labour
supply perspective). An analysis of the research findings
identified a number of current gaps preventing a match between the
petroleum industry demand for workers and the immigrant labour
pool. The key findings from the research and gap analysis conducted
for this project are the foundation for the strategic priorities
and recommended activities for the Petroleum HR Council's
consideration.
Project Results
The project, funded by Alberta Employment and Immigration has
been completed and the Final Research Report can be downloaded
below. Given the level of interest and support for this project,
the Petroleum HR Council and Alberta Employment and Immigration
collaborated once more to develop and deliver an Employer Workshop
entitled "Hiring and Integrating Immigrants into the
Petroleum Industry Workforce". The workshop aims to:
- Raise awareness of current immigrant recruitment and
integration barriers and challenges.
- Equip employers to evaluate and/or change current HR processes
and practices.
- Provide tools and resources to help employers recruit and
integrate immigrants into the petroleum workforce.
The workshop was piloted in April of 2008. If you are looking
for employer tools and resources for hiring and integrating
immigrants, please visit the Employer section in the www.careersinoilandgas.com.
If you are an internationally trained worker and are interested
in working in the upstream petroleum industry, please visit the www.careersinoilandgas.com.
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