North Sea oil jobs go to Europeans on dole

Skills gap forces firms to hunt abroad for workers

To order your own print of this or any other Mac cartoon, or a Pugh cartoon, visit Mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk or call 020 7566 0360 NORTH Sea oil firms are looking to recession-hit eurozone countries as they try to fill a huge skills gap. Businesses will attend recruitment fairs in Spain, Portugal and Greece to find experienced engineers.

The drive will target those left unemployed by the deep recession in southern Europe.

Last year, the oil industry broke employment records for the sector. Around 25,760 workers spent more than 100 days offshore, the highest level in seven years.

This was up 9 per cent on the previous year, while nearly 57,000 people spent some time offshore, a record high.

The sector has also seen record investment of £13billion this year and the North-East has among the lowest number of workless households in the UK.

Around one in nine households in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray are classed as ‘workless’, where no adult has a job – bettered only in the UK by Surrey and Oxfordshire. But the offshore sector’s huge growth has created skills shortages, with employers launching recruitment drives in Poland, Romania, Malta and Slovakia in the past.

Aberdeen City Council’s Business Growth service has now identified five overseas recruitment fairs as potential sources of skilled workers. It is offering places to firms which want to be present at events in Santander and Barcelona in Spain; Porto in Portugal; and Athens and Thessalonika in Greece.

Scotland faces significant competition from overseas, particularly Norway, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, in attracting personnel.

Heather Farquhar of Aberdeen City Council said: ‘These recruitment fairs offer good opportunities for Aberdeen firms to address skills gaps. We are conducting research across all areas of Europe and will widen this to a global search in the near future as part of our efforts to encourage more skilled workers to relocate to the North-East.’

According to trade body Oil & Gas UK, the number of under30s employed in the sector has soared by 14 per cent, suggesting that firms are finally beginning to tackle a staffing crisis.

The industry needs to recruit and train around 125,000 skilled workers over the next ten years

‘We will widen it to a global search’

More than 40 per cent of all North Sea staff are over 45.

Dr Alix Thom of Oil & Gas UK said: ‘The industry is growing steadily, with record investment in new developments forecast this year, mounting interest in exploring for new reserves and fields expected to produce into the 2040s.’

Around a quarter of oil and gas firms are struggling to recruit engineers and geo- scientists, while three quarters lack subsea specialists.

UK ministers have produced a blueprint to solve the jobs crisis which includes plans to recruit former servicemen and women.

The Government has given £7million to Newcastle University to establish an ‘extreme’ engineering centre for subsea and offshore engineering.

Scotland is still facing a shortage of trainee engineers and welders. Only 5,385 students left university with a qualification in engineering and technology in 2010-11, compared with 3,215 who finished a degree in art and design, 1,485 in psychology, and 950 in media studies.

Lauren McNicol of CBI Scotland said: ‘With UK businesses seeking to win a larger slice of the global market, it is essential they have the right mix of skills.

‘However, our latest Education and Skills Survey showed a number of sectors concerned about their ability to recruit sufficiently highly skilled staff in the future.’

ENGINEERING is the fundamental skill that has underpinned modern society for two centuries. It was virtually invented in Scotland and this country has produced some of the most celebrated engineers and engineering enterprises.

So why are North Sea oil firms being forced to conduct recruiting campaigns in economically depressed European countries to import engineers to Aberdeen?

The shortcomings of Scotland’s education system are beginning to i mpact on competitiveness and our economy. The most go-ahead industry in the world needs engineers, the rewards are high, but Scottish universities produced only 5,385 graduates in engineering and technology last year. There were more graduates in social engineering subjects such as media studies.

If students cannot be persuaded to study serious subjects, a skills shortage will destroy Scotland’s competitiveness.