As North Sea investment soars, immigration policy must be revised to make it easier to bring highly skilled contractors in to the UK where necessary, says NES Global Talent, the technical manpower specialist.
This week, trade body Oil & Gas UK reported that the UK continental shelf is benefiting from the highest levels of investment for thirty years. While the UK is home to some of the best technical and engineering experts in the world, demand is far outstripping supply and we are facing a talent crisis.
In order to fuel this boom, companies must be able to boost our home-grown workforce by bringing in contractors from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) where absolutely necessary. Failure to do so could threaten future energy projects.
Lee Knowles, UK Regional Director at NES Global Talent, said: “As the lifecycle of an oil and gas project moves from the conceptual design stage through to decommissioning, different skillsets are required. In order to meet shorter term staffing requirements, energy companies need to take on contractors, who in turn move from project to project around the world depending on where their specialist skills are required. By making it harder to hire contractors from outside of the EEA we are jeopardising the future of the UK energy industry. Just last year, Prime Minister David Cameron described the North Sea as a “global energy hub”, in order to maintain this position we must have access to the very best people in the business, wherever in the world they are from.”
The government has restricted the number of visas available to people from outside the EEA in a bid to reduce net migration. We recognise the importance of boosting national employment levels. However, currently we don’t have enough engineers in the UK to drive vital energy projects.
Lee said: “As well as making it easier for skilled workers to enter the country it’s important that we develop our own solutions to the talent shortage problem, especially with the cost of attending university going up and enrolment going down. We recently developed a Higher Apprenticeship scheme in Project Management – as part of the Government’s policy to address youth unemployment and ‘up-skill’ the workforce – to enable companies to recruit staff at entry level, and through a combination of formal and on-the-job training, arm them with the skills required to become valuable members of staff. Schemes like this are invaluable in helping to develop the next generation of skilled workers.”
