Ideas for getting more nationals into the Middle East energy industry

The energy and resources industry is facing challenges in the Middle East. These include an ageing workforce in an industry already grappling with an underweight qualified junior talent pool, as well as nationalisation pressures from governments to reduce heavy, costly reliance on expatriates.

What can be done to deploy national talent in the Mena region’s oil and gas industry?

There are a series of company-specific strategies and programmes that can be developed and implemented to provide short to medium-term solutions. These include:

• Graduate programmes. Aimed at national undergraduate students. These typically last between two and four years, offering the chance to gain diverse experience through systematic job rotations in different sectors within oil and gas, in upstream, midstream and downstream. International oil and gas companies that employ graduate programmes to hire and train graduates include Shell, ExxonMobil and Statoil.

• Women’s integration programmes. Aimed at taking advantage of an underexploited female talent pool by finding creative ways to attract women to the industry and developing skills. Recent surveys demonstrate that the presence of female role models was essential for their career advancement in a male-dominated environment.

• Coaching programmes for leaders. Aimed at developing technical, commercial and general leadership capabilities of national oil companies’ executives to help them navigate their companies through the dynamic nature of the industry. The objective consists of unleashing the leadership potential that might otherwise go untapped.

• Partnering with universities. National oil companies are partnering with and/or sponsoring local and regional universities to receive a steady stream of qualified national graduates. For instance, the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi is sponsored by Adnoc. All national students attending the Petroleum Institute are given full scholarships and are guaranteed a job in one of Adnoc’s group of companies upon successful graduation.

Individual initiatives are needed. Nevertheless, there is also a need for nationwide programmes geared towards transforming the ecosystem that enables the deployment of national graduates in the oil and gas industries. These programmes consist of revising the education system in high schools and universities to meet society’s demand in the Mena region and to support its countries’ economic visions. Moreover, career guidance should aim to attract school students at an early age into science, engineering and technology education to meet the ever-growing demand for a skilled labour force in the oil and gas industry.

Currently, the oil-rich countries in the Mena region lag behind their global counterparts in the number of engineering and science university students that graduate every year. Only 6 per cent of GCC students graduating in 2012 majored in engineering and science, compared with 24 per cent in Malaysia.

Additionally, the Mena region should invest more into research and development to spur innovation. The aim of scientific research funding will be to educate and support engineers and scientists to advance oil and gas exploration and production technologies in the most effective and environmentally responsible manner. Positive strides have already been made in the Mena region such as the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi, established as an independent, research-driven university that is focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies.

Another suggestion is for governments to fund human resources initiatives which attract and retain nationals in the oil and gas industry and ensure the establishment of succession plans to replace the current leaders with skilled and qualified nationals. Furthermore, governments could fund and sponsor technical trainings and leadership programmes to fill the industry’s skills gap.

Implementing nationalisation is quite an ambitious mandate across the Mena region. Deploying nationals in a post-oil economy in particular is not going to be an easy assignment. However, oil and gas companies are effective, with a strong employee value proposition, and they are able to set the group for new talent management practices.

Kenneth McKellar is partner, energy and resources leader and Joana Abou Jaoude is manager, consulting at Deloitte Middle East

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