Careers in Energy April 2015

CAREERS IN

ENERGY COMPANIES MAY HAVE SHIFTED GEARS FROM FINDING PEOPLE TO FINDING WAYS TO GET RID OF THEM, BUT THESE THREE STILL HAVE PROMISING FUTURES. FIND OUT WHY – AND WHERE –

IN THIS GUIDE TO CAREERS IN ENERGY

The Real Value of an Arts Degree And why Kevin O’Leary is wrong about it

THE BEST Energy-Focused Schools and Programs PRESENTED BY:

CAREERS IN ENERGY

INSECURITY

ISSUES Recent studies have suggested there are more jobs being created in renewables than in the oil sands.

Is it time for today’s oil and gas students to start making a backup plan?

By Jesse Snyder • Illustrations Graham Roumieu

TIMING, IT’S SAID, IS EVERYTHING. Take the report published in December 2014 by Clean Energy Canada (CEC), which noted, among other things, that there are more direct jobs in renewable energy (23,700) than the oil sands (22,340). If it had been released a year earlier, it would almost certainly have fallen on deaf ears. But with crude prices crashing and the economic viability of the oil sands suddenly in question, the report and its most controversial conclusion found a much more attentive audience. Newspapers jumped on the story, and Twitter and Facebook lit up with posts citing the report as proof the oil and gas industry’s day was at an end. And while social media and the daily press aren’t the best sources of information when it comes to making a decision about one’s post-secondary path, students pursuing a career in oil and gas could be forgiven for having some second thoughts about the path they’re on.

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But should they? The CEC, after all, is an advocacy group for renewable technologies, and its report, called Tracking the Energy Revolution – Canada Edition 2014, wasn’t solely focused on the labor market. More importantly, its general conclusion was less contentious than the one that was so widely reported. Renewable energy sources, it said, are making up a larger portion of Canada’s energy mix every year. “We’ve been tracking the evidence of the undeniable shift toward clean energy,” says Merran Smith, the director of CEC. For example, over the past five years an average of $260 billion was spent annually on renewable energy technologies worldwide, while in Canada a total of $24 billion was invested in renewables over the same period.

That’s getting into the same neighborhood as the approximately $100 billion that was invested in the oil sands between 2002 and 2012, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

“ IT’S NOT SIMPLY GREEN JOBS REPLACING OIL AND GAS JOBS.” – HERB EMERY But is that growth in renewable energy investment necessarily at the expense of the oil sands, and do jobs created in one sector reduce the number that exists in the other? Part of the problem in answering that question is the challenge associated with defining what a “clean” job really is.

Jennifer Winter, an associate director of energy and environmental policy at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, says there is no consensus on what constitutes >

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a “clean” job and what doesn’t. “It is a tricky issue,” she says. ”Green jobs or clean jobs don’t fit within a standard industry definition. In some cases it is all employees working at a green firm; in some cases it’s employees only involved in green processes.”

In October 2013, Winter and colleague Michal Moore wrote a report for the School of Public Policy called The ‘Green Jobs’ Fantasy: Why the Economic and Environmental Reality Can Never Live Up to the Political Promise. It argued that green jobs are not always categorized according to overall environmental benefits. A company that manufactures solar panels, for example, may use vast amounts of energy, yet earn the socalled “green stamp of approval,” according to the report.

Then there’s the way they actually count the jobs associated with the companies in question. The CEC report’s data on the number of jobs on the clean-energy side was taken from the Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report by Analytica Advisors. Celine Bak, who wrote the report for Analytica, says the survey included only energy-related companies with intellectual property in clean technologies. But while Bak says

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that Analytica was “extremely conservative” in selecting the companies, it included all the people that worked for them regardless of what they actually did.

In contrast, the Petroleum Human Resources Councilsourced data used to quantify the number of oil sands workers in the CEC report, was much more explicit about what did – and what didn’t – qualify as an oil sands-related job.

“Companies were asked to report headcounts by location of work, occupation and occupation-type; they were also asked to include only those positions 100 per cent dedicated to oil sands operations,” Winters wrote in a blog post addressing the CEC report. According to Winter, this is part of the problem with “green jobs literature;” while there is no shortage of data, there is a lack of consistency in interpreting that data. An example she uses is that an accountant at a renewable energy company does much the same work as that of an accountant at an oil sands company, yet only the “green” job in this case is considered a “direct” job.

Herb Emery, a professor at the University of Calgary who has studied labor trends in Canada, doesn’t think prospective students should put much weight in reports like the CEC’s.

For him, the question of job security in oil and gas is not a new one. Following the economic downturn in the 1980s, people made the very same proclamations of doom for those working in the energy sector. Unemployment was on the rise as demand for oil waned, and workers migrated out of the province to seek jobs elsewhere. “In the 1980s people used to make fun of engineers for their [low] employment rate,” Emery says.

The question today, of course, is whether this time is different. The world may be going through a permanent change in the way it consumes energy, one that is vastly different from past cycles. Or it could simply be facing a downturn similar to those of decades past.

For students, there are ways to prepare for the increasingly uncertain future of energy production and consumption.

Emery suggests studying a wider variety of post-secondary subjects, including those that are not specific to oil and gas.

“My advice even in the boom was to get general skills that are transferable across job sectors and locations,” he says. “[That way] you’re hedged.”

While engineers will continue to be in high demand, the requirement for specialized oil and gas professionals like reservoir engineers, drilling engineers and power or steam

“ W E’VE BEEN TRACKING THE EVIDENCE OF THE UNDENIABLE SHIFT TOWARD CLEAN ENERGY.” – MERRAN SMITH engineers could conceivably fall relative to the past decade.

Endurance Wind, a Surrey, British Columbia-based wind company, says broader engineering specializations like mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering and test engineering could be in higher demand as more wind capacity is brought online. As for the trades, Emery says many are transferable from oil and gas to renewables. He suggests tradespeople earn their Red Seal to give them the ability to apply their skills in various provinces.

That said, getting into those broader engineering programs has become more difficult in recent years, as education in Alberta becomes increasingly specialized, Emery says. That can be hard to reverse, too. “If this is a trend [toward renewables], we’re probably over-investing in a lot of those [specialized] trades and professional training.” For his part, Cameron MacGillivray, the president and CEO of Enform, says he’s not hearing many concerns about the job market of the future. Rather than getting questions about the oil and gas industry prospects, he says he is asked about what kinds of jobs are most in demand and how much opportunity young people have for career advancement in their respective fields. Due to the still-high demand for oil and other fossil fuels in the medium term, and the size of global reserves, he sees them playing a major role in the energy supply chain of tomorrow. “All the indicators are that hydrocarbons are an important source of energy for the foreseeable future,” he says. •

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CAREERS IN ENERGY

ON THE RISE

OMOLADE SALIU IBM

HAMID BATENIPOUR PARI BORESHNAVARD Golder Associates

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Meet the five hottest careers in the energy sector – and the people lucky enough to have them >

By Christa Bedwin Photographs Chris Wedman

ROXANNE GNAM WorleyParsonsCord

ANNE HARDING Suncor LYNETTE LEFSRUD GridStone Marketing

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TAKE HEART, PROSPECTIVE ENERGY SECTOR EMPLOYEE! Sure, the industry has shed tens – maybe even hundreds – of thousands of jobs lately. But if the past is any indication (hint: it is), those jobs won’t be gone for long. According to the most recent labor market outlook from the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, even in a low-growth scenario – still a good one to use in today’s environment – a full 23 per cent of the industry’s workforce will

become eligible for retirement over the next decade. That means approximately 45,000 positions will have to be replaced due to age-related attrition alone.

That said, it never hurts to be in a part of the industry that’s in particularly high demand. As such, anyone with an interest in the energy sector and a desire to remain employed and wellcompensated – yes, basically everyone

THE SKILLED TRADES

years. “The real demand over the next 10 to 15 years will be maintenance for today’s capital construction projects.

There will be jobs for safety inspectors, pipefitters, millwrights, electricians, plumbers.” Meanwhile, a slew of new megaprojects in other provinces – LNG and hydroelectric projects in B.C., shipbuilding in Atlantic Canada – will make pulling employees from those parts of the country more difficult – and therefore make finding people in or near Alberta more crucial than ever.

No matter how bad things get in the energy industry, it seems likely that demand for skilled trades will outstrip the available supply. That’s why one organization is looking for laborers where it traditionally hasn’t: among women. JudyLynn Archer, the CEO of Women Building Futures, an organization created in 1998 to help women find work in heavy industry by providing them with training and matching them with employers, says the slowly building demand for skilled tradespeople and the imminent wave of retirements will create plenty of room in the labor market.

Better still, she says those jobs won’t depend on maintaining the breakneck pace of growth in the oil sands in recent

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COMPENSATION: Journeymen pipefitters in Alberta start at $36/hour and by law first year apprentices must be paid at least half of that. Rates then increase with each year of apprenticeship completed. The average salary for women who have completed the WBF program is $72,600.

reading this – should consider taking up one of the following five careers.

Each one helps the energy sector solve one of its biggest challenges, be it reputational management, technological commercialization or data analysis.

And while that’s no guarantee of permanent job security, it’s about as close as you’re going to get in a cyclical industry like energy.

THE INSIDE STORY

WHO: ROXANNE GNAM First-year apprentice pipefitter with WorleyParsonsCord WHY: At 22, Roxanne Gnam planned to study nursing but she quickly realized that university wasn’t her thing. Through a job at the hardware store she discovered that tradespeople and the lifestyles they lived were a much better fit. “I love keeping active,” she says, “and in pipefitting I learn new things every day, with every new situation.” Though she was initially interested in welding, she later chose pipefitting after getting hands-on experience with six different trades – electrical, sheet metal, carpentry, welding, plumbing, and pipefitting – through WBF. Gnam is now attending a few months of spring technical training before moving ahead with her apprenticeship.

COMPENSATION: Someone graduating with a bachelor of science degree and heading straight into a career in data management and analysis can expect to start out at around $65,000. But with a PhD and a bit of experience, the compensation that a data scientist can pull down approaches $170,000 and up.

THE INSIDE STORY

WHO: OMOLADE SALIU Managing consultant, Advanced Business Analytics & Optimization at IBM

ROXANNE GNAM IS AN APPRENTICE PIPEFITTER WITH WORLEYPARSONSCORD

DATA ANALYST Each day humans create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data from sources such as climate information, posts on social media sites, purchase transaction records, GPS data and medical images. These enormous volumes of data need people who can sort, analyze and interpret what they contain, and tell organizations how to use that information to optimize their operations. It’s not surprising then that the demand for data scientists is growing exponentially. By 2017, the big data technology and services market is projected to reach $32.4 billion in annual sales.

And while it’s still early days, energy companies are quickly learning how to combine geological information and data management techniques in order to improve their ability to find and recover fossil fuels.

OMOLADE SALIU SAYS BEING A DATA ANALYST IS LIKE DIGGING FOR TREASURE

WHY: Omolade Saliu obtained his bachelor’s degree in Nigeria and wrote his master’s thesis on predicting project costs using machine learning techniques in Saudi Arabia. He completed his PhD studies, focused on applying “decision support” in software engineering at the University of Calgary and says that a career in data analysis is a bit like digging for treasure. “I enjoy helping businesses transform their organizations by unlocking new possibilities based on patterns hidden in their data while helping them gain better insights to improve business operations,”

Saliu says. The treasure that he discovers in those patterns can be worth a lot. “One day of downtime for oil sands haul trucks can easily result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss. Predictive analytical models can help predict and help reduce unscheduled down time and delay scheduled engine replacement times [and] reduce the maintenance cost while maintaining or improving equipment availability. This is just a snippet of the sort of capabilities possible with analytics.”

COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS There was a time when stakeholder relations were a relatively trivial concern for the energy business. Those days are clearly gone. Today, stakeholder relations are central to the industry’s performance, and the people who do it are key strategy assets.

While there are no real academic requirements to the job – indeed, those practicing it have backgrounds in everything from law to political science to chemical engineering – the ability to communicate well and interact productively with a variety of interest groups is an absolute must-have.

Not surprisingly, the demand for people who can communicate clearly and effectively about and within a company is growing. But the supply of those talented people may be drying up, as many current PR practitioners got into the job as a second or even third career and are now reaching retirement age or looking for reduced hours.

COMPENSATION: Someone straight out of university with a bachelor’s degree working in stakeholder relations could expect to earn between $45,000 and $60,000 per year, depending on the company or organization. Those who come to the position after decades of experience in other sectors, on the other hand, earn salaries based on the value they bring to the company. >

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THE INSIDE STORY

WHO: ANNE HARDING Senior advisor, stakeholder and aboriginal relations, at Suncor Energy, member of Young Women in Energy, and president of IAP2 Canada WHY: Anne Harding realized early on that she wanted to be involved in energy and built up her professional network through volunteering with various organizations as she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in corporate-aboriginal relations at the University of Calgary. Unlike a lot of people who do stakeholder relations, Harding was hired straight out of university. While some see those in the business of stakeholder relations as little more than spin doctors, Harding says the job is much more nuanced than that. “My role is not to convince the community that a project is good for them,” she says, “but rather to effectively represent the views of the community with the decision-makers at the company – and vice versa.”

HARDING, STRAIGHT OUT OF SCHOOL AND INTO STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS

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TECHNICAL MARKETER Alberta is home to many innovators and inventors who have come up with ideas to solve some of the energy sector’s biggest problems. But while they may be great at finding solutions, many aren’t nearly as skilled at selling them. Enter the technical marketer, one who understands high-level concepts and distills them into easy-to-digest graphics and information for potential financial backers, clients and the public. It’s difficult, after all, to get a new product into the marketplace if nobody understands what it does or how it’s better than what they may be already using.

To win as a technical marketer you need to be a quick study of people and projects and be able to communicate well. You also have to be good at multi-tasking, given that you’ll be dealing with everyone from videographers and technical writers to lawyers and accountants in order to deliver on behalf of your client.

COMPENSATION: Straight out of university, a new technical marketer can expect to earn about $50,000 a year. That said, it’s an emerging and highly entrepreneurial field, so there’s no standard compensation package you can expect.

Many people start a career in marketing with just one client. Your earning power will depend on your own negotiation skills and willingness to work hard. But with each success and each additional client, you will gain more stability and, of course, more money.

LEFSRUD LEFT THE TECH WORLD FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

THE INSIDE STORY WHO: LYNETTE LEFSRUD GridStone Marketing

WHY: Lynette Lefsrud has a degree in journalism, a diploma in business administration and a recently completed executive-MBA from the University of Calgary. She began her career marketing professional services on behalf of clients including an accounting association, an agricultural startup and an Internet company.

After two companies she worked for went bankrupt when the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s, Lefsrud decided to go into business for herself at the age of 29. While the idea of striking out on your own might seem scary to some, Lefsrud doesn’t see it that way. “People think entrepreneurship is risky, but I find it less so,” she says.

of stakeholders, owners and contractors.

To become a geotechnical engineer, you will need a minimum education of a bachelor of science in engineering.

COMPENSATION: Engineers-in-training typically start at salaries around $60,000 in Alberta. After working for two years and meeting the requirements of a professional engineer, those wages rise – often quickly – above $70,000.

What do the two like most about their respective careers? For Boreshnavard, it’s the detail work. “It might sound crazy, but I like organizing data and sorting out details to solve problems. I also like the challenges of fieldwork.” Batenipour, meanwhile, enjoys solving the bigger problems. “I like the complexity of the financial and construction challenges that I get to solve,” he says, “especially in the oil sands.” But what they like most of all, probably, is the fact that the work drew them together, first to Canada and then to Golder Associates. After all, they just got married. •

THE INSIDE STORY

WHO: PARI BORESHNAVARD AND HAMID BATENIPOUR P.Eng., geotechnical engineers and project engineers, Golder Associates

PROJECT ENGINEER In 2015, energy projects tend to operate at a much larger and more complex scale than ever before. As such, they need high-level project engineers who can manage complex systematic scheduling and budgeting for a broad variety of factors and players. For example, a project engineer in the oil sands today might need to understand how to book equipment and workers for mining three or four different areas, and, while that sand is being mined, also co-ordinate the use and treatment of water, and the movement of the mined materials. Meanwhile, the project engineer will have to effectively communicate progress to a variety

PARI BORESHNAVARD (LEFT) AND HAMID BATENIPOUR (BELOW) LEFT IRAN TO FIND WORK IN ENERGY – AND EACH OTHER

WHY: Boreshnavard, 30, and Batenipour, 32, each completed their bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering in separate universities in the same city in Iran. Boreshnavard worked as an engineer in Iran for almost a year before immigrating to Toronto, working on her English for a few months and finding herself a job as an engineer-in-training.

She moved to Calgary when she was hired to work with Golder Associates. The role would include project engineering, instrumentation monitoring, drilling and geotechnical field investigations, data analysis and writing instrumentation reports.

Batenipour’s career, meanwhile, took a more academic track. He moved to Canada to do a master’s degree in environmental engineering in Thunder Bay, and went on to get his PhD in Winnipeg while working on a Manitoba transportation and infrastructure project. He, too, moved to Calgary for an opportunity in the oil sands. His role now involves project management, design, construction supervision, drilling, client relations and writing reports.

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CAREERS IN ENERGY

BETWEEN

A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE A degree in geoscience used to be a ticket to a job.

Why that’s no longer the case, and what today’s graduates can do about it

By Rose Ugoalah

RIGHT NOW, hundreds of newly minted geologists are preparing to don caps and gowns and collect their diplomas on university campuses across the country. But when they do, they will be crossing the stage into a future that’s very different from the one they’d expected. When they started their degrees, they probably imagined that they would gain entry to the workforce the way most of their peers and predecessors had: with ease. They’d get summer jobs, co-ops, and internships 12

and eventually find permanent and well-paid positions. But this year’s crop will have to contend with more than just pre-interview jitters or the challenge of deciding which job offer to take. Low oil prices mean that many oil and gas exploration companies are cutting back on projects or canceling them outright, and while that’s bad news for job security all around, it’s particularly problematic for petroleum geoscientists. After all, they tend to be the first to go – with the newest among them going earliest of all.

Dennis Labrecque, a 40-year veteran of the petroleum geoscience industry and the president of Wellsite Geologists, knows all about the pressures on today’s graduates. For financial reasons, Labrecque recently moved out of his downtown Calgary office and began working from home. His agency, which has operated for more than 25 years, employs geologists in oilfield consulting work. Wellsite’s clients have included Husky, ConocoPhillips Canada and Encana, but he says low commodity prices have brought the demand for geologists to a screeching halt. As a result, he’s had to make cuts of his own. Last year Labrecque had eight geologists working for him, each earning between $75,000 and $175,000. This year, that number has fallen to zero, with no plans to increase it any time soon. “I am not hiring,” he says.

Many exploration companies were reluctant to speak with Alberta Oil about the dismal future facing recently graduated geoscientists. Cenovus, however, said it will not hire any fulltime employees this year, including geologists. John Hogg, the president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), says that because new well drilling has dropped off and because geologists are on the front end of all wells drilled, their work has all but dried up. If conditions persist – and most believe that they will, at least in the near term – there will be substantial layoffs, he says.

The damage isn’t permanent, mind you. Robert Kavcic, a Toronto-based economist with BMO Capital Markets, says that although oil prices are hitting lows similar to the global recession of 2008, the current situation isn’t necessarily as dire as it was then. During the so-called Great Recession, many businesses in the energy sector couldn’t get the credit they needed to run their businesses due to the instability and unpredictability of the capital markets. Today, he says, this

is not the case. That’s in part because of an emerging consensus (one that Kavcic echoes) that crude prices will recover gradually to around $75 per barrel within six to 12 months.

But until this occurs, oil rigs across North America continue to be taken offline, and Hogg says this freeze in operations will chiefly affect the new geoscientists hoping to enter the industry. “There will be a year or two where very few of them will be hired,” he says. “And they may actually leave the industry before they get started.” Hogg says that if commodity prices stay low for more than three years, a lot of young professionals will find other careers and may not return to the petroleum industry when the markets regain their footing. His advice to new undergrads?

Getting a master’s degree or a doctorate might be a good investment. “To come out [of school] when there are no jobs is the worst thing for them.”

“ THEY MAY HAVE TO FIND A JOB, INSTEAD OF THE JOB” – LAURENCE LINES The sudden instability in the job market for geoscientists doesn’t just affect today’s graduates. It’s also on the mind of tomorrow’s graduates, people like Grant Salo who have to figure out how they’re going to prepare for a job market that may not be ready to receive them. He’s in his second year of undergrad in Brock University’s earth sciences program in St. Catharines, Ontario, and while he initially wanted a career as an exploratory geologist doing fieldwork in the oil and gas industry, the recent turmoil has him reconsidering his next move. The decline in oil prices is a hot topic of discussion for Salo and his peers, who have decided to look outside of petroleum geoscience for

their co-op placements. Environmental geology, mineral exploration and mining, particularly in the gold industry, are becoming attractive options.

Their strategy is one that University of Calgary geoscience professor Laurence Lines says current graduates should be trying as well. He says that, due to similarities in the imaging tools and techniques used, the medical field has attracted geophysics grads in the past.

And while some of his recent graduate students have found work related to geoscience, many are still searching.

“They may have to find a job instead of the job,” he says. And for geoscience technologists, entry-level jobs are still scarce. SAIT’s geoscience program is specifically geared at hydrocarbon exploration. Instructor John Fernando says that many companies are no longer offering summer job opportunities, and of those that are, few are extending them into full-time job offers.

Fernando’s students are understandably worried, but he remains optimistic that the market will eventually turn around. Lines is also confident the markets will rebound, and that the job market will as well. But until then, he says that diversification and flexibility are key. He also says that an upside to the low oil price environment may be the broadening of the skill sets of geoscience graduates into other areas. Students like geophysics undergrad Ryan Borman might not have a choice, either. Last summer he completed micro-seismic and acquisition work with a company that specializes in vertical seismic profiles, and while the opportunity helped him make industry contacts, he hasn’t secured any employment promises after graduation this spring. He’s now considering returning to a job operating heavy equipment in a coal mine. In fact, he says, no one in his class has landed a full-time job yet. “It’s not looking so good right now.” •

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CAREERS IN ENERGY

MONEY FOR NOTHING? Why an arts degree isn’t worthless – and why the energy sector needs people with them now more than ever

By Max Fawcett • Illustration Graham Roumieu

A LIBERAL ARTS DEGREE IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. Just ask Kevin O’Leary, the former Dragon, current Shark and perpetually outspoken financial guru. He’s a regular guest on BNN, and during a February appearance on the network he shared his thoughts on the subject. “You come out with a history degree and you’re going to [be a] zero,” he told host Catherine Murray. “I’m not saying it’s not something you shouldn’t do as a hobby, but you can’t get employed. It’s impossible. You can sit on the street with a blanket over you reading poetry – that’s OK. But you won’t get a job. That’s not worth $100,000. An engineering degree, a technical degree, anything in the

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trades, is better.” O’Leary’s sentiments may have come with the usual helping of hyperbole that he serves up, but there’s also something in them that should be familiar to anyone who has one of those useless liberal arts degrees.

They resonate particularly loudly in the energy sector, where technical training and scienceand engineering-based degrees are always in demand and usually lead to full employment and six-figure salaries.

But is a liberal arts degree really as worthless as O’Leary seems to think? Lisa Young, the dean and vice-provost of graduate studies at the University of Calgary, isn’t buying it. “In the energy sector, as in most

sectors of the economy, what employers are looking for are people with skills in communication and collaboration and people who are adaptable. And they’re exactly the skills that somebody should acquire when they’re getting an arts degree.” Those arts degrees are particularly useful in the current environment, given the social, reputational and political challenges the energy sector still has to face down.

“It’s clear that there’s going to be an ongoing conversation about carbon pricing and about environmental impacts, and you need people with real interdisciplinary knowledge – not just technical knowledge but also knowledge of social context – in order to get out in front of those issues.”

Liberal arts degrees will also help energy companies manage the challenges that lie in their futures but which they can’t see yet. That’s because the calling cards of liberal arts graduates – lateral thinking, the ability to see the big picture and an understanding of what she calls “social context” – are skills that those who come from more technically minded educational backgrounds don’t always have. “That critical perspective can be really valuable to have around the table – any CEO knows that having a table full of people who agree with you on everything is a disaster waiting to happen,” Young says. “What you want to do is surround yourself with people who share your fundamental objective but have diverse perspectives so they can alert you to emerging issues and make you question your thinking in a way that’s productive to the industry.”

Brad Ferguson, the president and CEO of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, shares that perspective.

“When you have a diverse view set in a room you tend to come out with better solutions,” he says. “If 10 people in the room are trained exactly the same way, nine are redundant. So when we’re going

to talk about complex issues – man versus man, man versus nature, man versus the environment – those are humanitybased discussions. You need differences of opinion, and different lenses to solve that problem.”

The challenge, Ferguson says, is for arts graduates and the companies that might employ them to better understand the relationship between what they’ve studied in school and how they can apply it. “People don’t understand how to make the connection to something that’s relevant today,” he says. “But when you take anthropology and apply it to economics, then you realize that ChinaRussia relations are really important to the economy and maybe the price of oil. That’s where a lot of folks don’t make the connection, and why a lot of graduates don’t hit their stride until they have more work experience to apply it to.” As an example, he says, consider someone who comes out of school having studied Chilean history, which naturally includes an understanding of geography and anthropology and even a bit of economics. With just a bit of training and guidance, that student could make a lot of money playing the market on the price of copper using that supposedly worthless arts education she has. The same is almost certainly true for the energy sector, he says. “I’d suggest in the energy sector the value of the arts degree has been discounted from the potential value it has.”

That value includes providing graduates with a basic social and intellectual toolkit that can, in time and with practice, be used to create good leaders – and maybe even a few great ones. “A big part of leadership is being open and listening to a variety of views, formulating your opinion and then knowing how to communicate it to a wide range of people,” Ferguson says. “That critical element of leadership around listening, learning and communicating doesn’t come from

“ THAT CRITICAL ELEMENT OF LEADERSHIP AROUND LISTENING, LEARNING AND COMMUNICATING...

COMES FROM SOME OF THE SOFT SKILLS THAT THE ARTS FACULTY IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO TEACH.” – BRAD FERGUSON more physics courses or knowing 30 different ways to build a bridge. It comes from some of the soft skills that the arts faculty is uniquely positioned to teach.”

Still, that’s easy for people like Brad Ferguson and Lisa Young to say.

It’s much harder for today’s students to actually hear it, given the cacophony of well-meaning advice, insight and the occasional bit of fear-mongering they have to sort through when figuring out what they want to study. But Chelsie Klassen is one person who managed to cut through the noise. When she arrived at the University of Manitoba, she thought she wanted to study nursing given that, as everyone was more than happy to tell her, it offered its graduates excellent career prospects.

She abandoned that path after a year, though, deciding that she wanted to study economics instead. Today she’s the media relations manager for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, and she got that job after spending seven years working for Imperial Oil in a variety of positions in both the field and head office. “Just like many people that are told that arts degrees won’t get them anywhere, I was told the same thing,” she says. “But I still made the leap from something that had job security in nursing into the arts world, and here I am in the energy industry. And I love it – I love it every day.” •

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CAREERS IN ENERGY

TOP OF THE CLASS THE 2015 GUIDE TO ENERGY EDUCATION From oil and gas to renewables, the energy sector is one of the world’s most vital – and well-compensated – fields of study and stable employment. Still, choosing the right program and school isn’t easy, and it never hurts to get a little help from your friends. With that in mind we present Alberta Oil’s 2015 Guide to Energy Education.

THE BEST OF THE WEST

When it comes to getting an education in energy, Albertans enjoy a substantial home-field advantage. Some of the best programs on Earth are located right in our own backyard, and they draw students from across the country and around the world.

The School: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA The Department: ALBERTA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS The Program: Master of Business Administration, Specialization in Natural Resources, Energy & Environment • NREE students develop energyrelated analytical expertise based on a broad understanding of the resource and energy industries, from the exploration and project development phases through extraction and transformation to transportation, logistics marketing and market issues. The program helps students address and analyze key strategic questions facing today’s business leaders and policy-makers. Throughout

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the curriculum, the many links between resource and energy questions and environmental issues are highlighted, analyzed and understood.

Annual Tuition: $18,406 Average Graduating Salary: $72,177 Other options at this school include: • Master of Science in Integrated Petroleum Geoscience • Bachelor and Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering • E xecutive Education Certificate in Energy Strategy and Finance

the Canadian oil and gas industry.

This is the only such concentration in Canada and one of only nine in the world. The fourth-year PLMA concentration courses include four half-courses focusing on legal agreements, oil and gas exploration strategy and analysis, PLMA cases, and management of energy regulations. Experienced industry specialists teach PLMA courses in the evenings.

The American Association of Professional Landmen and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Landmen award scholarships to many students.

Annual Tuition: $6,818 Average Graduating Salary: $60,000

The School: UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Department: HASKAYNE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS The Program: Bachelor of Commerce, Concentration in Petroleum Land Management • T he Haskayne School of Business offers a bachelor of commerce degree with a concentration in petroleum land management that prepares graduates for careers in

Other options at this school include: • Bachelor of Engineering, Energy and Environment Specialization • Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Geology • MBA in Global Energy Management and Sustainable Development

The School: NAIT The Program: Petroleum Engineering Technology diploma • Petroleum engineering technology is a two-year diploma program that prepares the graduate for employment in the upstream petroleum industry. The expanding oil sands development sector also provides tremendous opportunities for petroleum engineering technology graduates. Graduates start careers as production technologists in the exploration and production sectors of the conventional and unconventional oil and gas industry. Typical employers include oil and gas producers, oilfield service companies and regulatory agencies.

Annual Tuition: $4,334 Average Graduating Salary: $70,000 Other options at this school include: • Alternative Energy Technology Diploma • Industrial Heavy Equipment Technology Diploma • Geological Technology Diploma

The School: SAIT POLYTECHNIC The Department: THE MACPHAIL SCHOOL OF ENERGY The Program: Energy Asset Management Diploma • The energy asset management (EAM) diploma program is designed to provide graduates with the skills and knowledge needed for the analysis, documentation and ongoing administration of regulatory, financial and contractual rights and obligations of companies working with oil and gas assets. Students in the EAM diploma program learn through an integrated approach all about the asset management discipline, which includes joint ventures, mineral and surface land management, well asset management, operations accounting and production accounting. This two-year program will prepare workers for entry-level EAM positions, and is now available through distance education.

Annual Tuition: $9,033 Average Graduating Salary: $52,592 Other options at this school include: • Bachelor of Applied Technology Petroleum Engineering Degree • Power Engineering Technology Diploma • Oil and Gas Production Accounting Certificate

THE BEST OF THE REST

You don’t necessarily need a degree in engineering or geology to work in the energy sector. For those looking for a different way into the industry, these schools offer up a variety of programs and courses that can pave the way for virtually any career path.

The School: MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY The Program: Bachelor of Communication, Public Relations •M ount Royal’s bachelor of communication program offers an alternative path to landing a career in the oil and gas sector.

This hands-on program offers three majors (Journalism, Public Relations and Information Design) and requires students to complete at least one supervised work experience. There are also opportunities to study abroad or get involved with causes closer to home through recognized community-service learning projects that prepare graduates to hit the ground running.

The School: RED DEER COLLEGE The Program: Rig Technician • S tudents in the rig technician program develop the expertise to maintain drilling rig engines, transmissions, heating systems and other mechanical equipment.

With an on-site derrick at the college, students are able to participate in real-life safety training, which includes fall protection and rescue procedures. The real-world

simulations offered by the on-site derrick provide students with a solid understanding of the equipment and the precautions needed to remain safe in their work. Students also have the opportunity to participate in rig mobilization and de-mobilization and maintain logs and records for an experience that provides them with the tools needed to succeed in their careers. Students generally use the program to become motorhands, derrickhands or drillers, all of which can offer a sizable income.

The School: UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE The Program: Bachelor of Science, Remote Sensing Specialization • Remote sensing involves the acquisition and analysis of photographs and images from airplanes, satellites and other platforms for obtaining important information about the Earth’s land, oceans and atmosphere, as well as other planets and bodies. The remote sensing major provides applied training in laboratory and field settings coupled with a solid theoretical and experimental foundation. As a graduate in this emerging field, your skills will be in demand across a wide range of sectors – from corporate energy giants to specialized government departments. Graduates may find employment with geospatial technology companies, survey firms, mapping companies, aerospace engineering firms, positioning and navigation businesses, building or defense contractors, petroleum and energy producers, mining corporations, remote sensing companies, space agencies, geographical information companies,

computer graphics businesses, public utilities or government departments.

The School: UNIVERSITY OF REGINA The Program: Petroleum Systems Engineering • Students in this program have the additional advantage of handson training through the U of R’s relationship with the Petroleum Technology Research Centre. The PTRC exists to fund research and development into oil recovery techniques and sustainability initiatives like carbon capture and storage research. Petroleum systems engineering students learn to evaluate oil and gas reserves, design well drilling, analyze reservoir performance for production optimization, perform advanced reservoir simulation and visualization, develop new techniques to enhance oil recovery and conduct modern reservoir management.

The School: WESTERN UNIVERSITY The Program: Bachelor of Science (Earth Sciences) • The Department of Earth Sciences at Western University (London, Ontario) offers four undergraduate and graduate courses in petroleum geoscience. The course credits can be applied to all degree programs, with particular application to the professional programs in Earth sciences that are designed to meet or exceed the minimum academic requirements for professional registration as a licensed geoscientist in Canada. The course materials are designed and taught by a professor with over 20 years of oil industry experience, with an emphasis on >

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applied methods using industrystandard software in current case studies. The classroom and laboratory instruction is augmented by field instruction and other experiential learning methods.

The School: LAMBTON COLLEGE The Program: Instrumentation and Control Engineering Technology Diploma • The program provides the needed technical background as well as a significant hands-on opportunity to develop skills to operate and maintain control systems that incorporate digital, pneumatic and hydraulic processes. Instruments are used in controlling process variables such as temperature, pressure, level and flow quantities in a variety of industrial and commercial buildings.

The program labs duplicate a reallife manufacturing environment and the technologies developed can easily be scaled up and transferred to the actual operating unit.

Moreover, students in this program will have the opportunity to work in relevant industries within the three co-op terms.

The School: SASKATCHEWAN POLYTECHNIC The Program: Power Engineering Technology Diploma • Power engineering technology is a two-year diploma program offered full time at Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Saskatoon campus.

You’ll gain knowledge and skills in the operation of power (steam) plants and industrial processes, including boiler operations (high and low pressure), computer monitoring of plant operations,

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controls and instrumentation, equipment checks and maintenance, plant safety and pump operations. The program combines classroom learning with hands-on labs, power labs, computer simulations and industry work experiences. Graduates are productive on the job from day one – something employers look for when hiring and promoting.

THE GREEN GIANTS

The number of jobs associated with sustainable development and renewable technology are growing every year. Here are a few of the best programs for students looking to tap into that trend.

The School: UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Department: HASKAYNE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS SUSTAINABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT The Program: M.Sc. • This program teaches students how to handle the complexities involved in managing sustainable energy projects and operations, all the while focusing on environmental and socioeconomic impacts. It is a blended program including elements from the U of C’s faculties of business, engineering, law and environmental design.

The School: UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES The Department: ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND RESTORATION The Program: Diploma

• This program offers a unique mix of environmental law, technical labs, field skills and applied science to prepare for a successful career in environmental assessment and restoration. Students will engage in theoretical and applied training through a combination of field, lab and lecture opportunities.

The School: UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN The Department: ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY The Program: MES, PhD • The Environment and Sustainability program allows students to research technical, political, social, economic and institutional issues related to resource extraction. Graduates study pertinent issues in energy as well as practical solutions to challenges in environmental management, policy, assessment, reclamation and consulting.

The School: MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY The Department: SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The Program: BRM • This resource management program was developed to combine scientific knowledge of natural resources with the skills necessary for policy development and management. Students receive an education balancing profitable energy resource knowledge with ethics and environment.

The School: CARLETON UNIVERSITY The Department: SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ENGINEERING AND POLICY The Program: MASc, M.Eng., MA • This program is structured across two disciplines. Students in the sustainable energy engineering and policy program can graduate with either an engineering degree or a public policy degree. The program allows graduates to contribute to both public ventures and private businesses engaged in sustainability.

The School: DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY The Department: RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES The Program: MES • T his two-year program allows students to gain knowledge and skills in a course-based environment while also completing a thesis that focuses on a pressing issue of interest. Electives include courses in economics, environmental studies, law, business, planning, politics and more.

The School: QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY The Department: ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES The Program: MES • The master of environmental studies at Queen’s University will meet the skill demands of industry, government and nongovernmental organizations.

Credentials can be obtained through course-based or researchbased programs; students will also gain professional interaction and networking through the program.

GOING ABROAD

Whether you’re on the lookout for a new opportunity or on the run from an old problem, sometimes you just need a fresh start. And while we’d encourage anyone who wants to study energy to do it here in Canada, there are MBA programs across the continent – and beyond – that can offer something … different.

If you love deep-fried Mars bars (or deep-fried anything, really): The MBA in Oil and Gas Management from Robert Gordon University Duration: 54 weeks Location: Aberdeen, Scotland If you love indie rock: Texas MBA in Energy at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin Duration: 24 months Location: Austin, Texas If you love college football: MBA in Energy at the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University Duration: 18-24 months Location: Houston, Texas If you really love college football: The Price College of Business Executive MBA in Energy at the University of Oklahoma Duration: 15 months Location: Norman, Oklahoma

If you loved the movie Pineapple Express: MS in Global Energy Management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School Duration: 18 months Location: Denver, Colorado If you believe in the power of creative disruption: MBA in Energy and Clean Technology at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley Duration: 21 months Location: Berkeley, California If you love international travel: Cross Continent MBA in Energy and the Environment from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University Duration: 16 months Location: Durham, North Carolina (with stops in New Delhi, Santiago, Shanghai and St. Petersburg)

The Haskayne MBA. Calgary’s MBA. Taught by industry experts and award-winning professors, the Haskayne MBA combines the relevant knowledge and practical application needed to accelerate your career.

Ask us about our Global Energy Management

MBA HASKAYNE

and Sustainable Development MBA specialization.

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