Non-profit organisation International Gas Union (IGU) working on development of gas production held a meeting in Cairo Monday to discuss youth employment and workers’ skill development in the sector.
Regional coordinator of IGU in the Middle East and North Africa and chairman of Taqa Arabia, Khaled Abu Bakr, called to improve the skills of workers in the gas sector through training opportunities, noting that this would help optimise gas production in the Middle East.
According to Abu Bakr, market key players should focus on injecting more investors into the market by working on removing obstacles encountered by investments, development of infrastructure, and applying scientific mechanisms to make best use of energy resources.
Head of IGU Human Resources committee Reham Ghraib said there are many opportunities in the MENA region in the gas industry: “However, these opportunities need continuous cooperation between the concerned parties to develop infrastructure projects and the train workers.”
Ghraib said the gas industry has become an “ideal” working environment and an integrated system that ensures a constant raise in the efficiency of workers, which leads to increase of production and work development at all levels in the natural gas production sector.
She said the task force responsible for the development of manpower in IGU focuses on three main foundations – talent attraction, development and retention – to maximise the utilisation of the accumulated expertise. This will expand the scope of work and the search for new ideas to exploit the use of natural gas and its integration with other energy sources to get sustainable and eco- friendly energy mix.
The meeting participants identified a number of mechanisms that can be executed in parallel over the next three years to determine how to provide job openings for more youth and attract talented people through field research, surveys, personal interviews, and workshops.
The working plan includes conducting research on the average age of gas sector workers and identifying the basic skills needed while focusing on skills that are expected to become more important in the future.
Participants also addressed the possibility of developing skills through curricula in educational institutions and the establishment of special training and development centres for each area of specialisation in the industry. Members also discussed ways of knowledge transfer and training implementation techniques, which commensurate with the nature of work and development, self-development, and promotion plans.
