Young professionals from Britain’s oil and gas industry yesterday proposed to business leaders ways to improve the strategy for attracting, developing and retaining the next generation of workers.
This happened at an Oil and Gas UK Dragons’ Den-style breakfast briefing at Offshore Europe.
The next generation’s perspectives were gathered at an OGUK conference earlier this year.
At the breakfast, proposals for increasing the size of the talent pool from which firms can recruit and harnessing the potential of the next generation were heard and debated by four “dragons”: Bob Keiller, chief executive of PSN; Deirdre Michie, supply-chain manager at Shell UK; Venture Production’s chief operating officer Jonathan Roger and Offshore Europe chairman Thomas Thune Andersen.
Mr Andersen said: “I firmly believe it is imperative that the industry continues to recognise the importance of listening to the oil and gas industry’s next generation.
“Current business leaders want to know how the next generation plan to fulfil their ambitions and what needs to be done to ensure the long-term sustainability of the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry. The outcome from the conference provides us with a template for how the oil and gas industry can meet its future challenges and opportunities, inspired by the views and ideas of the next generation.”
Trisha O’Reilly, OGUK’s communications director and chairwoman of yesterday’s event, said: “Maximising the recovery of the UK’s natural resources and bolstering the UK’s impressive oil and gas supply chain in its position as a world leader will require the next generation, our current young professionals and those joining the industry in the years to come, to address technical challenges, increase efficiency and attract new investment.
“To ensure that businesses are equipped to overcome these challenges, today’s industry leaders must focus on attracting skilled young people to the industry and developing them so that they have the required experience. Oil and Gas UK’s breakfast briefing succeeded in giving our young professionals the ‘voice’ to convey their perspective on how the industry could achieve this.”