Training centres: Class of 2011

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Middle Eastern operators have greater scope than ever before to train and enhance their employees locally than ever before thanks to a slew of developments which came on stream in 2011.

There is a case to say the need has never been greater, with nationalisation driving a significant part of every country’s economic vision, and a desire to boost local upstream skills and capabilities.

From national oil companies right through to upstream knowledge development and technology training, the region has seen a surprising level of investment in training, in spite of a tougher economic climate for many. In the following pages we profile the companies which have made a standout contribution to the training landscape in 2011.

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Saudi Aramco
Back in February, the newly-completed Upstream Professional Development Center (UPDC), Saudi Aramco’s state-of-the-art facility in Dhahran flung open its doors to house an updated integrated training programme for Upstream Operations employees.

All upstream training is being redesigned to combine technical depth and breadth with behavioural skills necessary for upstream professionals to excel in a dynamically changing work environment.

Big Crew Change
“UPDC is more than a facility and much more than a training programme,” said Amin Nasser, upstream senior vice president. “It is Saudi Aramco’s proactive decision to stay ahead of the times. It represents our commitment to prepare our workforce for the unique challenges that lie ahead.”

According to Abdullatif Al-Ghanim, director of Upstream Continuing Excellence: “UPDC is designed to address unprecedented professional development needs. We have aggressive targets of higher hydrocarbon discovery and recovery factors that require more complex activities and technologies to achieve. Exploration efforts are reaching into new environments, such as the Red Sea and deep gas exploration in the Arabian Gulf.

“The technologies used during routine operations will continue to evolve with new tools and advancements appearing at a rapid pace. With the advent of enormous amounts of real-time data that allow critical operational decisions to be made on the fly, engineers and geoscientists are taking multidisciplinary collaboration and joint decision processes to a new level.”

Perhaps the most immediate challenge that UPDC faces is the ‘Big Crew Change.’ Throughout the oil and gas industry, the bulk of experienced professionals are retiring from the upstream work-force and are often being replaced with inexperienced new graduates.

UPDC is working to bridge the growing upstream experience gap with aggressive training and mentoring programmes. Communication and bonding networks now link disciplines to help young professionals tap the wide array of knowledge among senior professionals before they retire.

The UPDC training programme has been developed for eight upstream job families: Geology, geophysics, petrophysics, reservoir engineering, production engineering, facilities engineering, drilling and workover, and upstream computing.

Instructional design experts work closely with industry technical experts to design and update training to enhance learning and retention. The training is hands-on with reduced lecturing.

Experiential learning is targeted by numerous practical applications that translate directly to the workplace.

Customised technology applications also are integrated into some courses, allowing participants to learn important concepts and quickly perform analyses. To ensure job relevance, experienced Saudi Aramco subject matter experts teach many of the courses.

Saudi Aramco data, work flows and tools are also incorporated into the training. To help keep the courses fresh, dynamic and flexible, feedback is welcome.

The design integrates multiple resources: senior experience, youthful innovation, history, lessons learned, new technologies, new ideas, continuous information flow and training expertise.

A formal competency assurance process is built into all UPDC courses. Beyond confirming whether trainees are achieving the required competencies, this process assesses the quality of the courses and identifies areas for improvement. A fast track to achieving competency targets is also available. The framework is in place to significantly reduce both knowledge and experience gaps in an efficient manner.

While the new facility was under construction, the UPDC training programme was launched. The Independent Contributor curricula for all eight job families were defined, courses developed and began being offered in 2010 in temporary training facilities.