As capability development is one of its key strategic objectives, SPE sponsored a forum in August 2013 on the need to ensure an appropriately educated upstream engineering workforce in 2020 and beyond. The attendees concluded that our petroleum engineering educational systems will be significantly challenged to produce the qualified talent that the oil and gas industry will need in 2020 unless the industry and academia make this issue a priority and collaborate on ways to resolve the anticipated underlying gaps (SPE-169906-WP). Forum participants volunteered to champion specific and actionable initiatives designed to help improve our industry’s ability to meet its resourcing needs in the next decade. As we mark the first anniversary of the forum, here are some of the efforts being advanced by the participants.
Sharing Resources. Laboratories are a key challenge for many educational institutions for several reasons. Higher-than-normal enrollments put pressure on having adequate laboratory space for all students to complete laboratory requirements. Additionally, laboratory equipment at many universities is in need of upgrade due to technology advancements. Most schools are unable to increase or upgrade their laboratory space or equipment because of limited funds. With the advent of automated laboratory equipment, the capability of sharing laboratories virtually is one of the initiatives that forum participants were interested in exploring. One forum team conducted a pilot survey of schools in the United States to determine the laboratory capabilities at each school, and their needs and level of interest in sharing facilities either physically or virtually. Several schools have indicated an interest in sharing facilities. The next step is to conduct a pilot to test the concept.
Another resource sharing opportunity that has made progress is a secure website where design problems, data sets, etc., can be shared among faculty. The next steps involve the faculty uploading materials that they would like to share on the website and to promote the website to faculty.
Facilitating Collaboration. Collaboration within and between academia and the industry was an overarching need identified by the forum participants. As an encouragement, one forum initiative was to create a collaboration agreement template that the parties could use as a starting point for contractual agreements to work together. This agreement template addresses aspects such as collaboration goals, contributions, and obligations as well as intellectual property ownership. The template is complete and available for use at SPE Connect through the SPE website (www.spe.org).
An additional collaboration opportunity is being worked on by the forum’s local development work group. The team is helping to address the gap in developing local faculty and students by identifying opportunities for collaboration on local development among SPE, employers, and universities. Documentation on examples of best practices in local development and investment in petroleum engineering education worldwide has been collected and reviewed. The analysis will continue and decision criteria are being evaluated in the selection of potential pilots for recommendation to the SPE Board of Directors.
Encouraging Student Success. A student survey was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of summer internships. Nearly 300 students from 16 US schools responded. An initial analysis suggests that
- Students value internships very highly and would like more.
- Many students would consider an internship during nonsummer months.
- Better advance planning (work scope definition, skills, and experiences that students need or want) and mentorship skills would enhance the overall internship experience.
Gathering International Faculty Data. Another challenge that SPE and our industry have is in the quantification of faculty issues worldwide. Data gathering in the US is strong because an established committee regularly surveys US university department heads. On an international basis, no such group exists and there is no complete list of universities offering petroleum engineering degrees or faculty contact information. SPE is currently partnering with Schlumberger Business Consulting to collect the data in conjunction with its biannual petrotechnical professional survey. More survey questions on the faculty have been added and additional methods of contacting schools are being attempted. Survey results and an analysis are due in the fourth quarter of the year.
As we celebrate the forum’s first year, champions are making good progress on these and many of the other initiatives that were recommended by the forum. We anticipate that it will take additional and ongoing collaboration by all parties to help address the significant challenges that face academia and the oil and gas industry.