THE North Sea’s own website, OilCity, is setting out to map the skills of those who work in the industry today or who have retired.
However, it will be necessary to raise sponsorship to the tune of £65,000 to fund this latest phase of the website.
The driving force behind OilCity, Bernie Vincent, told Energy that he hoped the industry itself would step up to the plate to ensure sufficient funds are put in place to enable the work to get under way.
The money is needed to further engineer the website and create templates to enable workers to “download” their work histories – skills profile.
This includes how they got into the industry in the first place – a lot of North Sea workers landed careers offshore on the back of wholesale shutting down of traditional industries UK-wide, such as heavy engineering, shipbuilding, and so forth.
Vincent believes that not only will this reinforce OilCity’s objective of becoming the unofficial history of North Sea oil that anyone involved can contribute to, but it could also encourage others with no prior involvement to consider a career offshore.
“This is about recording skills, but we don’t see ourselves as being an employment agency,” he said.
“But maybe it will encourage people to join the industry.
“We are seeking to persuade individuals to map how they got into the industry and how they progressed … what were the trigger points/key events along the way. Everybody’s story is important.
“However, we’re looking for sponsorship. Phase two of OilCity is going to be more expensive than phase one.”
Vincent said, of progress to date, that knowledge of OilCity was gradually trickling down through the industry. Moreover, some companies, such as BP and Shell, had helped by carrying details in their pensioners’ newsletters. He would like others to consider doing the same.
OilCity’s website is at
http://www.oilcity.co.uk
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