Oil and gas companies should do more to entice young talent into the industry from an early age – but so should the public education sector, believes the Scottish Energy Minister.
On the second day of the Offshore Europe exhibition Fergus Ewing spoke at the Shell stand as the company launched two of its trainee programmes for students: Shell Engineering Scheme and Girls in Energy, ran by Banff and Buchan College.
The minister, who participated in a similar event two years earlier, noted the increased female audience at the stand and the 90% graduate employment rate among the former Engineering Scheme students – but said more companies should follow Shell’s suit.
“We’ve got a huge shortage of workers in a number of key areas and if that’s to be addressed for 10 – 30 years time, the investment has to be made now,” Ewing told Energy Voice.
Although he said he would expect such initiatives coming from the private sector, the minister also agreed that the UK education system should respond to the skills shortage in the industry.
“It’s absolutely right that we need to start [industry related education] early, from primary school, not wait until teenage years – and I think that as a country we can do much more.”
“There’s lots of individual effort going on around the country… but perhaps it’s a little bit patchy and a lot more needs to be done.”
Watch the full interview with Fergus Ewing below – together with one female student’s comments on her experience of the Girls in Energy programme.
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