President’s Column: Energizing Tomorrow: Engineering Education, Upskilling, and SPE’s Role

_ Do you know that feeling when you are so used to something in your daily routine that you’re surprised when somebody else asks you about it? Along the lines of “that’s standard, why would somebody care? ”, I’ve come to realize that I’m that way with petroleum engineering education—or just academics in general. As the Department Head of Petroleum Engineering at Colorado School of Mines, I live and breathe higher education on a daily basis. It’s just part of my DNA at this point. However, it’s finally sunk in that not everybody is as immersed as I am. This realization occurred due to the sizable number of questions I receive from SPE members about higher education, industry/academia relationships, research funding, continuing education, upskilling, etc. Before I jump into this topic, I will start off with a HUGE disclaimer. Yes, I am an academic, and only the third sitting academician to serve as SPE President. However, that doesn’t mean that I know everything about the state of all educational areas. Especially in a worldwide setting. Therefore, I will share some thoughts that I believe might be of interest to SPE members at a high level based on the questions that I am generally asked on this topic, but if you want to dig into some details on a particular region or situation, I encourage you to reach out to local expertise in that area. Oh, and one last point before we jump in: this column is my first after the SPE Board of Directors’ January meeting. If you are interested in updates from that meeting, they are the last part of this article (feel free to jump ahead). The Big Picture of Engineering By far not all members of SPE are engineers, but no matter what your background, as citizens of the world, this first topic impacts us all. Multiple studies conducted over the past several years show that many parts of the world are headed for workforce gaps in engineering disciplines. This study published in 2023 by Stonehaven out of the UK indicated that 20% of their engineering workforce was set to retire by 2028, and the backfill for those positions was nowhere near enough to meet projected demand. A study by the Boston Consulting Group, also published in 2023, states that the US needs about 400, 000 new engineers each year, but that only 1 in 3 of those positions is being filled. Japan, Germany, and many other countries are seeing similar gaps in supply and demand. Not all countries in the world are in similar situations. In some places and in some engineering disciplines, supply does outrun demand. Additionally, some governments have been strongly focused on increasing their engineering education base. Throw in the overprint of economic pressures, and some studies that suggest the world has enough engineers or perhaps too many. So, what’s the disconnect here? If we start to peel back the onion, this paradox does get a little clearer. Generally speaking, the skills gap is largest where demand exists for skilled engineers with very specific areas of expertise. In other words, “engineer” is too generic of a term, and we need to look at discipline-specific areas.