What are the chances that upstream workers will be able to retrain and successfully apply for IG and New Energies (Renewable Solutions etc) jobs? Or are mass Upstream layoffs in the cards in the next few decades? What type of Upstream workers have the best shot at switching.
6 replies (most recent on top)
They are retrainable they will just need to take a 30% pay cut to work in utilities rather than oil and gas.
The company has so many dumbos that Amy Upskilling Program should be repackaged as a Whatskilling Program.
Best bet for skilled workers, I think, is spinning off upstream and downstream to fund their new energy. As the previous poster mentioned, the salary structure doesn't make sense for a senior engineer or geoscientist to work for utility or new energy company. Reskilling will be mostly for managers, coordinators, "project leads" without specific technical skills.
I don't think it comes to trainability. It comes to salary and experience. Utility salaries are almost 50% compared to oil and gas. Why would the company spend time and money retraining us when they can get people off the street with experience already? Utility companies have a lot less people as well. Also the margins of utilities are much less compared to upstream oil and gas. Then again upstream margins for shell have been miserable for many years. To top it off, US oil and gas workers have benefitted with tremendous increases in salaries due to the shale boom. Which now doesn't make sense as you can find people dime a dozen.
I really love to hear people speak with such ignorance. These folks that are not retrainable have been the money makers for Shell throughout Shell’s existence. Once a group stops studying history they’re soon to repeat it. The person in the first reply is a college educated person who doesn’t have a clue about life and life experiences.
Alot of them are not retrainable. Most of them should have received the boot long ago.