Bob Keiller, chief executive of Wood Group, looks at the importance of graduates to the oil and gas industry and to Wood Group
The oil and gas industry is one of the UK’s industrial success stories and we need to encourage the most talented graduates, apprentices and trainees to join us – we need their energy and enthusiasm to ensure our future success.
We are a vital part of the UK economy and society – our industry pushes the boundaries of what is possible to supply vital energy and, in the process, creates secure, high-quality jobs for graduates in the UK and elsewhere.
Our industry has some of the most entrepreneurial, dynamic and international companies from any sector – companies that have shown their tenacity, their resilience, their adaptability and their talent – companies that are set well for the next 50 years.
So graduates will have a bright future ahead of them if they choose to work in our industry – they are our future managers and leaders; they will be well rewarded and they will have countless opportunities.
Our industry is exciting, operating in some of the most challenging and interesting regions in the world and working on some of the most advanced and complex projects ever conceived.
Wood Group places huge importance on graduate recruitment and we have been rated in the top 10 graduate companies to work for in the energy sector by The Job Crowd – a leading graduate job review website.
In the UK, the graduate interest in working for Wood Group has been phenomenal, and this year, we received over 5,000 applications for 130 places on our graduate programme.
We also recruited trainee designers and invested in almost 40 new apprentices working in both craft and technician streams. These are the finest, mostly young, talented people, and now we need to nurture and develop those skills.
Our business is built on seven core values that define who we are and how we behave.
Graduates choose to join us because they want to work for a company that operates ethically, they like our focus on safety, people, and being socially responsible and because we are a good company, a decent company with lots of the best people in the business who are all proud to be part of the Wood Group team.
Wood Group offers a diverse range of services to a diverse range of operators and can offer graduates a wide range of experience.
Long-standing relationships with our customers run alongside new and exciting partnerships we are developing with emerging young companies.
However, for us it doesn’t stop at recruiting the best graduates; we have committed to investing in our emerging talent population and have identified 50 high-potential individuals from across our business, many of whom have completed our graduate programme, and we are putting them through development centres to add to our business management talent going forward.
We are also committed to strengthening our relationships with universities and have recently pledged our support to a new scholarship programme with the University of Strathclyde.
Some of our senior engineers actively participate in the academic engineering calendar through guest lectures and student engagement at Robert Gordon University and the University of Strathclyde.
Graduates bring a fresh and unique perspective to our business and in return we commit to giving them the best training and support we can offer.
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