Sabah's O&G industry needs 25,000 skilled workers: UMS
Published on: Friday, November 20, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah's oil and gas industry needs about 25,000 skilled workers at a high-end level right up to managerial level.Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Faculty of Engineering Dean Prof. Dr Rosalam Sarbatly, who disclosed this, said there is a huge shortage of skilled manpower in the industry as several oil and gas projects in the State have to import such workers from overseas to cater to their manpower needs."The percentage of locals with those high-end skills for the oil and gas industry in Sabah is very small whereby we are lacking local manpower in high-tech skills such as those concerning seismic and underwater tasks.
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"However, about 70 per cent of locals are in the low-end technical skills like blasting, painting and coating."That is why UMS came into the picture and is collaborating with certain bodies that issue internationally recognised certifications so as to address the shortage in high-tech skills," he said.Dr Rosalam said this to reporters after the opening of a Forum on 'Technical Work Scopes in the Oil and Gas Industry' by Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Datuk Siringan Gubat, here, Thursday.The forum was jointly organised by Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) Sabah branch, Institute of Materials Malaysia Sabah Chapter and UMS in collaboration with the Ministry of Resource Development and Information Technology.
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Also present were IEM Sabah Branch Chairman Tan Koh Yon, IMM Deputy President Mohd Azmi Mohd Noor, Petronas Sabah Operations Reliability and Maintenance head Aidy Ahmad Hijazi and senior officials.Dr Rosalam, who is also Executive Director of UMS Oil & Gas Sdn Bhd, said there is also a need to create awareness among the local youths on new developments in the oil and gas industry as well as the vast job opportunities in many fields in the sector.
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"UMS is working together with the State government and one of them is via a platform under Sabah Economic Development and Investment (Sedia) called Human Resource Development of Oil and Gas for Sabah that is looking into the workforce needs of the industry and ways to fulfil the shortage."Apart from this, UMS is also offering a degree and specialised courses in collaboration with other bodies so as to meet the demands and requirements of the oil and gas industry in Sabah," Dr Rosalam said.To a question, he said the basic entry to take up skills courses in oil and gas is at least Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) with a certain level of command in English as well as in Mathematics.Apart from having interest in the industry, Dr Rosalam said it is imperative for the individuals to have the right attitude as the oil and gas industry is quite a high risk industry."Although the individual has the interest and passion to acquire skills in the industry, it would be meaningless if he or she does not have the right attitude which could create problems at the workplace."That is why we are also selective and the industry is not for everyone," he said.Meanwhile, Siringan said there is a low awareness among local youths in Sabah of existing opportunities and the benefits of the oil and gas industry.He said many of those opportunities have yet to be explored especially in acquiring high technical skills in the industry."That is why we want to create public awareness among the young generations especially those living in rural areas on the availability of huge opportunities in the industry and for them to tap the sector," he said.Siringan said the oil and gas is a fast developing industry in Sabah with many upstream and downstream projects by Petronas and their international partners such as Shell, Murphy Oil, Talisman and others.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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