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Skill Development in Hydrocarbon Sector

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October 16, 2023

Why in news?

Recently Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) said that it has joined forces with Hydrocarbon Sector Skill Council (HSSC) for skill development and capacity building in the hydrocarbon sector.

Hydrocarbon Sector Skill Council

  • Established- 2017
  • Nodal Ministry- Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
  • Objective- It is to execute skill development activities in hydrocarbon Sector and to meet the entire value chain’s requirement of appropriately trained manpower on a sustained and evolving basis.           
  • Mission-
  • Creating a pool of skilled manpower for hydrocarbon sector
  • Benchmarking new skills and up-skilling National Occupational Standards (NOS)
  • Promoting inclusive growth through economic and social equity
  • Reaping ‘Demographic Dividend’
  • Improve productivity and sector competitiveness
  • Oil and Gas sector- National Occupational Standards is developed by identifying 118 trades which were identified by the industry committee for imparting skills.
  • Skilled manpower- To impart quality training with industry requirement, Skill Development Institutes have been set up by the oil and gas public sector units.
  • Training institutes- The Skill Development Institutes are available in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Guwahati, Raebareli and Ahmedabad. The candidates undergo the residential training programme to learn skills as per the industry requirement.
  • Holistic coverage- It is also endeavouring to identify more partners for creating more training centres in various locations on pan-India basis to meet the local employment requirement.

Why there is a need of skill development in hydrocarbon sector?

  • Demand for blue collar jobs- All segments of the sector need blue collar workers
    • Upstream- Exploration and production
    • Downstream- Refining and retailing
    • Midstream- Pipeline networks

Blue collar refers to a job that is manual labour

  • Skilled workforce- The entire value chain of the hydrocarbon sector requires huge skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower.
  • Increased hiring- There has been a significant increase in hiring with the renewable energy sector, driven by the global focus on sustainability, this led to reduced reliance on fossil fuel.
  • Hydrogen technologies- This has led to increased hiring for the roles related to hydrogen production. Hydrogen infrastructure development is also seeing demand.

How SHRM and HSSC will work together?

  • Job creation- It will create employment opportunities across various sectors with a primary focus on hydrocarbon (oil and gas) sector.
  • Skill enhancement- The partnership aim to increase skill competencies of the Indian workforce and make them more attractive candidates for employment in the hydrocarbon sector.
  • Leadership- The collaboration aims to nurture leadership capabilities, which will be valuable in various roles and industries beyond oil and gas sector and get into manufacturing, railways, auto and other major infrastructure and service sectors.
  • Improve the demand- The demand for skilled and competent workforce in the hydrocarbon sector is substantial, the training will look at skill building, behavioural and skill assessments, behavioural training programs.
  • Skill building-It will be on specific projects focused on skill development, capability enhancement, and related hard core technical activities.
  • Assessments- Behavioural and skill assessments will include content, platforms and execution, to evaluate and enhance the behavioural skills and technical skills of the workforce. They are designed to benefit other industries also.
  • Behavioural training program- It aim to enhance behavioural skills and leadership capabilities. The focus here is on nurturing the soft skills and leadership attributes that are essential for career growth and success in various professional settings.

What lies ahead?

  • Trained and skilled resources are a much-needed component for every sector. It will sensitise the sector to take on future challenge as most of the companies are diversifying into various other segments of the energy space.
  • The entire value chain’s requirement of appropriately trained manpower in quantity and quality on a sustained and evolving basis is the need of the hour. What is needed is to sustain it and keep refreshing their skills in sync with the changing times.

Steps taken by the government to improve hydrocarbon sector

  • Discovered Small Field Policy- It was launched in 2015 to reduce the import dependency of hydrocarbons & to effectively exploit the untapped established reserves Marginal Field Policy.
  • Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy- It was launched in 2016 which provides uniform license for exploration and production of all forms of hydrocarbon.
  • Data availability- In2017 National Data Repository was launched. It provides systematic use for future exploration and development.
  • Natural Gas Marketing Reforms- It was launched in 2020 with the objective of increasing domestic production of natural gas, to move towards gas-based economy, bring uniformity in process of discovery of market prices of gas, and to promote ease of doing business.
  • Reforms in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy for enhancing domestic exploration and production of oil and gas 2019.
  • Policy to Promote and Incentivize Enhanced Recovery Methods for Oil and Gas, 2018

References

  1. Business Line- Energy sector needs skilled workforce
  2. HSSC- Hydrocarbon Sector Skill Council
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