- You need to talk about engineering

Energy Transition Norways young professionals visited Rosenberg Worley's EPC yard in Stavanger on a rainy, first day of February. The clusters Young Professionals Board (YPB) aims to connect students and young professionals with established leaders in the energy industry, and 11 visitors studying energy and petroleum technology at the University of Stavanger were presented with several of the Rosenberg’s current projects and prospects for a future in the green transition.

Visitor guide and veteran project manager at Rosenberg, Tom Forland, praised te student’s choice of study. As the number of applicants for typical petroleum subjects at universities has plummeted since 2013, the lack of skilled people continues to be one of the largest bottlenecks faced by the industry.

After the Tour, Knut Høiland, business developer and project manager at Rosenberg Worley, invited the future engineers in to discuss the implications of the industry’s bad reputation together with sales manager for sustainable solutions, Jan Willy Kristiansen.

The students called for much better industry representation in the study- and career career-guiding at school, of which they themselves had received none:

– The industry needs to talk to the youth about engineering and career opportunities in the future industry. And they need not to wait until upper secondary school, since by then the students' minds have already been set. The environmental activitst has a one-sided message that needs to be challenged.

Young kids get the impression that pursuing petroleum engineering means pursuing a future where there either are no jobs, or where a future career will only contribute to further destroying our planet, said one student.

If we stop studying traditional engineering and turn of the tap, who is going to develop the new, clean technologies and finance the energy transition, another asked.

The students' experience is that only those with a parent in the industry have a chance to navigate through the noise and make realistic career decisions.

As Høiland presented Rosenberg Worley’s ambition that 50% of company revenues will be related to sustainability by 2025, he touched upon Flex2power in particular. The flexible floating installation is a flagship cluster project of Energy Transition Norway, is a good example that illustrates the discussion.

– All of the engineers working on the Flex2power concept came from Oil and Gas. None of them required retraining into what one might consider being specific ‘green skills’, the Flex2power project manager said.

The industry changing, but basic engineering skills remain the same.

The lesson from the students is that the industry needs to get involved to help young students make better-informed career decisions.