Skill Shortages and Retention

The project objective is to determine the tools, resources, and support needed by the oil and gas industry to increase the employment and retention of immigrants already living in Alberta into the upstream petroleum industry.

The Petroleum HR Council long recognized the need for the petroleum industry to diversify its labour force to meet the growing need for skilled employees. The 2003 study, The Decade Ahead, uncovered troubling information gaps between employers and potential employees that were impeding the industry's ability to attract and retain a diverse pool of talent.

The responsiveness of the education, training and development model varies significantly. The ever challenging requirement for institutions to harmonize with regulation while focusing on the specific skill shortages must be balanced against the requirements of individuals and employers' needs to rationalize expensive training costs.

The Council is currently building structure for regular information sharing between the upstream petroleum industry and the education community. The goal is to align the future workforce needs of industry more closely with the training provided by educational institutions - to narrow the gaps between supply of and demand for new entrants.

The Essential Skills program aims to identify Essential Skills gaps in the upstream petroleum industry and find out what kind of interventions are required.

One of the greatest challenges for the industry in meeting the demand for skilled labour is that, for the most part, the petroleum industry's growth areas are in hard-to-recruit locations. Recruiting people to hard-to-recruit locations for work is just half the battle; companies and communities have to work even harder to get their good people to stay.

In April 2009, the Council launched the Increasing the Talent Toolkit to help companies and communities understand and address attraction, retention and workforce development challenges. Now the program is going one step further by refining the existing toolkit and looking at new services and products to help employers attract, retain and develop a skilled workforce.

Occupational Profiles, created by the Petroleum HR Council of Canada, detail everything you need to know about work, education and career paths for a specific occupation in oil & gas.

The Petroleum Competency Program (PCP) certifies workers in certain occupations within the petroleum industry. With industry demand for skilled workers at an all-time high and growing regulatory and public expectations about the performance and safety of the petroleum industry, the PCP is more relevant to the needs of industry than ever before.

Completed in 2007, the objective of the project is to conduct a study to provide a basis for a workforce development plan for the upstream oil and gas industry within the Province of Saskatchewan. The results are detailed in a full research report entitled Saskatchewan Upstream Oil & Gas Workforce Development Report.