OPITO – The Oil & Gas Academy was formally launched this month.
The launch follows Oil & Gas UK’s announcement in November when the creation of the Academy was mooted. Details are now available and reveal how the Academy will work to develop and deliver the workforce capability needed for business success and the long-term sustainability of the UKCS through a first-of-its kind skills academy.
For the first time, the industry will have an independent, employer-led organisation that will provide an effective link between the industry and learning provision across the UK to improve the supply of relevantly qualified people into the oil and gas sector.
The Academy results from the merger of oil and skills body, OPITO, and the Offshore Training Foundation. Chief executive of the newly formed academy, David Doig, explains:
“The Academy will be a focal point for the whole industry to come together to deliver on its skills and knowledge agenda. With employers at the centre, the OPITO Oil and Gas Academy will support and enable the delivery of a workforce with appropriate and relevant skills. This will be achieved through three distinct areas; working with education and academia, working with training providers and working with government and trade bodies as well as enterprise agencies and local authorities.
“The Academy is all about creating new ways of addressing the skills issues to make a difference that is positively felt by the whole industry. It will create new relationships which will result in tangible outcomes that respond to different companies’ needs.
“There are good initiatives throughout our industry but they are being carried out in a piecemeal fashion. By consolidating the efforts and resources currently being invested by employers, the academy will provide a sharper, clearer focus on delivering a much greater return.”
OPITO – The Oil & Gas Academy has a board made up of industry leaders representing employers, trade bodies and trade unions. It will actively engage with employers by listening closely to them in order to identify, understand and evaluate their needs. Those needs will be translated into practical projects and initiatives and delivered by the academy through its work in three core areas.
Faculty of Learning
Through its Faculty of Learning, the Academy will collaborate with education and academia. Working at the highest levels with schools, colleges and universities, the Academy will seek to inject practical, relevant industry-based learning into the curriculum.
In relation to schools, the academy will seek to enhance the access to technology and science for children, increase the number of pupils taking Scottish Standard, Higher and Advanced Higher grades and English GCSE and A Level grades in maths and science, develop curriculum materials that enhance the understanding of the industry.
The overall aims will be to increase the number of people entering the industry with relevant qualifications.
Learning Supply
To influence and support the development of a learning infrastructure that is relevant to the industry, the academy will engage with commercial and non-commercial learning providers. This arm of the academy will aim to ensure a world-class learning supply that supports a world-class industry.
Enterprise and Innovation
Working with trade bodies, government agencies and others, the academy will pro-actively identify opportunities, facilitate innovation and share best practice to support the industry’s learning needs.
Mr Doig adds: “OPITO has an international reputation for delivering common global training standards, quality assurance of training provision, innovative skills solutions and workforce development programmes as well as the facilitation and management of programmes such as the industry’s Modern Apprenticeships and Petroleum Open Learning courses. The academy will continue to fulfil these roles.
“It is anticipated that the academy will, to a large extent, be self-sustaining but through the Offshore Training Foundation the industry will inject funding to kick-start new initiatives to address specific skills issues.”
Operational funding will be generated using existing income streams from the sales of products and services to the industry. Other income streams will be derived from the development of national and international offerings using tried and tested business models that already exist within OPITO.
The increased remit of OPITO means that new skills and additional resources are required to complement and support the existing team. A recruitment campaign will shortly be underway to find people for key positions in the academy to support the existing team within OPITO. At least 11 new jobs will be created. A £700,000 investment in OPITO’s building at Portlethen is also planned to provide the working space and environment to meet the academy’s needs.
The academy will be wholly focused on oil and gas but will, through its membership of Cogent, contribute to the wider national skills and education policy agenda and share best practice.
Statements of Support for the Academy
ACSEF
Rita Stephen, development manager of Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Forum (ACSEF) says: “The Oil & Gas Academy is great news for the industry but also for Aberdeen City and Shire. It fits very well with the local economic forum’s agenda on skills and learning and our overall vision for the region. The project builds on our international track record of developing people to work in the global oil and gas industry. There is also a strong fit with our aspiration to see the region as the natural home for an International Energy Academy – focused on the needs of the wider sector and building on our experience in developing people for the oil and gas industry.
Learning Provider
“It is anticipated that this academy will become an exemplar for other oil and gas provinces around the world and a world leader in specific areas of learning.”
Jamie Bennett from e-learning specialists, Atlas Interactive, commented, "We are very supportive of the new Oil and Gas Academy. The global oil and gas industry has an increasing appetite for a highly skilled workforce and Aberdeen has a fantastic pool of world-class training providers that can collaborate effectively to address the varied and demanding requirement. We look forward to working with all the stakeholders in this initiative to drive world class training provision and OPITO standards across the industry."
Education
Professor Alex Kemp, Professor of Petroleum Economics, at the University of Aberdeen, said: “The launch of the Oil and Gas Academy is to be greatly welcomed. Over the past few years activity in the UK Continental Shelf has been restrained by skills shortages at all levels. This new initiative will produce more skilled personnel which, in turn, will help to bring forward the development of more new projects. This will bring a welcome addition to production which is, of course, increasingly valuable at today’s oil prices.”
Industry
Bob Keiller, PSN’s CEO, said: “The Academy will help us to avoid duplication of effort and wasteful investment in bespoke training programmes, in favour of standards that are more widely recognised. The challenge for employers will be the early identification of future skills requirements to make the best use of the Academy’s increased horsepower.”
Posted by Online Data on Saturday, December 29, 2007 20:23
Location Scotland
Category University Notice Board
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