Subsea Valley Conference: Subsea Valley, with its 230+ member companies, is campaigning with Mission Mars and role models to secure more competence for future growth in the sector. Recruitment of talents to the subsea industry is THE buzzword throughout the Subsea conference in Oslo, April 2-3.
The Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, in her keynote speech to the 300+ Subsea Valley Conference audience at Telenor Arena, was not quite happy with the competence and education situation as it is.
– Norway has a competitive position in terms of the share of GDP spent on public R&D. However, Norway’s spending on business-oriented R&D is well below the Nordic and OECD average, Solberg said.
One reason might be that Norway has a more commodity-based private sector than other OECD-countries, but this argument does not fully explain the situation. Solbergs governement wants to change this.
– We have increased measures to stimulate business-oriented research. We have strengthened the tax deduction scheme for R&D costs – called SkatteFunn, and we have strengthened the scheme for public support of business-related research – called BIA, said Solberg.
Have jobs, not enough people
A recurring message at the conference, from the industry to the Government, is the need for highly competent personnel, both skilled workers and engineers. The entire sector relies heavily on the skills of its employees. The governments tries to answer to this demand. One way to go could be new and specialized universities.
– We have ambitions to establish world-class universities in various subject areas. The Subsea Valley is an example of a world-class hub of expertise, where our higher education sector maintains a high standard in a specific subject area. But in the fast-changing world of business, we can never afford to relax our efforts, Solberg said, even if we holds a high standard today, that does not mean we automatically will hold a high standard by tomorrow.
The higher education sector been allocated more resources, and in the Government’s policy platform we have stated that we will increase student capacity in the fields of engineering and natural science.
Increasing spending on R&D is another important way of promoting innovation. This is why the Government has increased the budget for petroleum-related research for 2014. The budget for 2014 increased by 15 % compared to 2013.
– An innovative Norwegian oil and gas industry is also vital for ensuring the efficient and safe production of our petroleum resources, Solberg said.
Mission Mars and role models
Subsea Valley’s managing director Preben Strøm would like to start out early to get the right kind of people. On the conference day two session, he welcomes 430 pupils in the age of 10-12 to the Subsea Valley Conference School event.
– In just 3 days, we got 430 enrolments, and if we had the capacity, we could have doubled those numbers. They will come to hear about Mission Mars and the world of opportunities our industry can offer, Mr Strøm said at the Conference opening.
According to Mr. Strøm one need to ensure, maintain and develop young kids interest in science and technology.
– The industry need to take responsibility. Responsibility to communicate, to create jobs for the future, to motivate, said Mr. Strøm.
Dr. Pascal Lee, co-founder and chairman of the Mars Institute and director of the NASA Haughton Project performs a special school event – getting ready for the greatest adventure of the century.
Mr. Lee has the opening speech on day two of the Subsea Valley Conference 2014, about steps toward the first human mission to the red planet.
Another action taken in recruiting is a cooperation between Subsea Valley and the Ministry of Education and Research to recruit role models from our industry. Together with The National Centre for Science-Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Subsea Valley has a goal of recruiting 250 role models during the two day conference at Telenor Arena.
– These role models will be an important link between our industry and schools in our area. They will inform, communicate and motivate.
The company that recruits the highest number of role models, will win a travel check of NOK 30 000, a check that the winner has to forward to a school class in the winner’s local area.
Minister of Knowledge and the Arts Torbjørn Røe Isaksen is supporing the role model program.
– I am very pleased that Subsea Valley Conference has set itself the goal of obtaining 250 new role models to the Centre for science recruitment. Should we encourage children and young people to choose science, we need role models to inspire them. This is also fully consistent with the large-scale science initiatives the government has started, said Minister Thorbjorn Røe Isaksen.
Astrid Sørensen, senior vice president for joint operations in develpment and production in Statoil, underlined the need for qualified talents in de subsea sector:
Statoil asked its suppliers to select the most important factors restricting the ability to adapt capacity to increasing demand. A clear majority of 73 per cent of the respondants answered that the lack of qualified personell is the most important restriction to meet increasing demand.
Nashater Deu Solheim, director for strategy and organisation at Petoro, said in her Subsea Valley speech that the industry needs to adapt new ways of training employees. The use of social media and establishing virtual teams around world will have great impact on the way competence is shared and implemented, according to Deu Solheim.