An Imbalance of Employment Opportunities in Oil & Gas

The poor balance among experienced workers, young professionals and executive managers in the oil and gas workplace, creates an urgent need to develop young professionals.

An Imbalance of Employment Opportunities In The Oil and Gas Industry.

The lack of balance between experienced workers, young professionals and executive managers in the oil and gas workplace, creates an urgent need to develop young professionals.

We need to address employment opportunity gaps in the following categories

• Experience
• Gender

           

 Experience

 The hard to fill positions in the East African oil and gas industry are executive managers, project leaders or supervisors. Our industry has lost most young professionals during the oil price slump from 2014 to 2016. And few graduates have employed in the previous industry downturn.

Even as the oil and gas prices began to recover in 2017 and 2018, young professionals have to compete for job positions with professionals who have a decade of hands-on experiences in the oil and gas industry. The simple truth that the industry has to attract more young people, develop and transform them from just followers to project leaders or executive managers 

 Gender

The oil and gas industry is an unpleasant place for women.

It can be a little bit frustrating for women to establish and maintain a career in the oil and gas industry

I have a young sister studying finance at the University of Dar Es Salaam. She omits the oil and gas industry in her search for learning experience opportunities. The common misconception is that the industry is dirty, male dominate and unstable fields. We need to change these negative perceptions about our industry. We need to attract more young people and developing them from just graduate engineers to executive managers 

                  Bridging Employment Gap In the Industry.

The study indicates that fewer women are holding executive positions in the oil and gas industry. According to research out of all the supermodels, (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, Total, and Eni), there isn’t a single female CEO. ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Eni don’t have a single woman with a “C-Suite position”. BP, Shell, and Total each have just one female C-Suite employee. Out of the 30 key executives of these 6 companies, there are just 3 women or 10%

Since East Africa is attracting the attention of international oil and gas companies for the latest big discoveries and following technological innovation in the oil and gas industry, training and development of young professionals and move them from just users to world-class professionals is the answer for an imbalance of employment opportunities in the oil and gas industry.