Workforce Report 2019

However, there is no doubt that the processing of data to produce these figures in organisations has shone a new spotlight on gender diversity in the workplace, ensuring companies consider the reasons for underrepresentation and how to address them. Good employers are publishing narratives and action plans as well as involving their own workforce in helping to attract and retain more women. It should be acknowledged that underrepresentation of women in STEM-related roles is not unique to the oil and gas industry; it is a problem for UK plc as a whole and one which employers have been wrestling with for many years. The country continues to face the challenge of girls not choosing STEM careers when they perform just as well as boys in STEM subjects. Technical apprenticeships often struggle to attract young women over more conventional career choices. Efforts to reverse this continue and, in our industry, interventions include classroom sessions, working with schools, colleges and universities, mentoring and internal networks as well as reviewing language in job adverts and job descriptions. Oil and gas skills requirements are changing at a rapid pace. Digitalisation, internationalisation and the transition to a lower-carbon future require re-skilling opportunities to be created and new roles to be defined. The recently published report UKCS Workforce Dynamics: The Skills Landscape 2019–2025 , commissioned by OPITO and produced by The Robert Gordon University (RGU) Oil and Gas Institute, outlines a number of actions that are needed to prepare the workforce for the future. The new skills and roles identified in that report could prove to be a positive influence on gender balance in the industry, particularly given they are in relatively new disciplines with higher numbers of women than traditional STEM areas.

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