Report on Engineering Schools

'The demand is enormous' in energy and mining

Retiring workers and the rocketing need for resources mean graduates with technical skills will be scooped up, experts say

TERRENCE BELFORD

Special to The Globe and Mail

May 5, 2008

Aaron White has suddenly found his services in as much demand as the latest version of Grand Theft Auto. The 29-year-old is about to graduate with a certificate as a petroleum engineering technologist from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary and already has several job offers.

Two years ago he was an underemployed University of Calgary graduate working as a server in a restaurant. Today he can command a starting salary of between $60,000 and $65,000 a year.

"A couple of years ago I looked around this city and realized the future was in energy," Mr. White says. "But energy companies don't want people with basic bachelor of science degrees; they want people with technical skills, so I went back to school.

"The demand is enormous."

Enormous indeed, say researchers, educators and the industry itself. Canada's wealth of natural resources puts it centre stage on world markets. The question is, can we supply all the engineers, scientists and technologists that will be needed to get those resources out of the ground and into the hands of eager consumers?

In Alberta, provincial forecasts suggest there will be a shortage of 6,000 energy industry engineers within 10 years, says Elizabeth Cannon, dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary.

The mining industry will need 92,000 more workers by 2017 and a significant chunk will be engineers and engineering technologists, says Ryan Montpellier, executive director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council in Ottawa.

The fact is, universities alone can not cope with the huge surge in demand, says Anis Farah, director of the school of engineering at Laurentian University in Sudbury. His school will graduate just 15 to 17 mining, chemical and mechanical engineers this year, although Laurentian is now gearing up to significantly increase its class sizes.

Currently only nine universities offer mining engineering, Dr. Farah says. And those nine graduate only between 120 and 150 new mining engineers a year, says Mr. Montpellier.

"Three years ago, our first-year class for all engineering courses was just 20, last year it was 80 and this fall we will have 110 students," Dr. Farah says. "Meeting the enormous demand for engineers in this sector is a major challenge. I am not at all certain if industry has any solutions."

University administrators say a number of factors are lining up to create a wave that may overwhelm Canada's ability to capitalize on the huge global demand for its resources.

As Mary MacDonald, dean of the MacPhail School of Energy at SAIT, points out, global appetite for oil and gas seems certain to continue well beyond the next decade. With world oil prices predicted to hit the $200 a barrel mark, and with Canada sitting on what many suggest is the second-largest oil reserves in the world, this country is well positioned to benefit.

Alberta alone has between $100-billion and $150-billion in new oil projects on the drawing board right now, says Dr. Cannon.

At the same time, however, demographics are working against us, Ms. MacDonald says. The huge bulge of baby boomers is now nearing retirement and the next generation is significantly leaner in numbers.

"About 25 per cent of all petroleum technicians are now in their 50s," she notes.

In the mining industry a third of all university-trained engineers are over 50, adds Mr. Montpellier.

"We just can't meet demand," says Dr. Cannon. "There is not enough money to expand university classes to that level - even if we could find the students. This year we will graduate 450 engineers in total with half of them going to the energy industry. We have plans to increase enrolment to about 600 but that still will not be enough."

Meeting future needs will depend on a mix of expanding university and technical college graduates, providing Canadian credentials for foreign-educated newcomers, and recruiting from overseas, she adds.

"About 95 per cent of our students are now new Canadians who may be qualified in their own country but don't have Canadian qualifications," says SAIT's Ms. MacDonald.

"At the same time in Alberta, only between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of high school students are going on to higher education. The salaries offered by the energy industry are just too great a draw," she says.

Those salaries start at $60,000 a year for technologists like Mr. White and can range as high as $80,000 for a newly minted mining engineer, says Laurentian's Dr. Farah. He adds that even his school's co-op program students are drawing between $3,500 and $4,000 a month while on work programs.

"We are even losing graduate students who drop out of their courses to take advantage of the money being offered by mining companies," he says. "The industry has given us grants to do research but we can't do it because we can't find the researchers to take on projects."

For new graduates like Mr. White, however, the resource industry's problems virtually guarantee a glowing future. His two-year SAIT course boosted his annual salary by about $25,000 a year and that will be just the starting point.

"There is enormous demand for people like me right now," he says, "and I can't see that changing."

WHERE THE JOBS WILL BE

Within four years, Canada's oil and gas industry will need thousands of new engineers and technologists, says the Calgary-based Petroleum Human Resources Council.

Northern Alberta's oil sands alone will demand more than 1,000 college- and university-trained professionals. The council estimates the oil sands will need about 5,250 new people by 2012, in addition to the 2,780 now working there. Here are some of the jobs the council predicts will be in significant demand in Alberta:

Process engineers

Mechanical engineers

Chemical engineers

Power engineers

Instrument technicians.

In the East Coast oil and gas fields, only about 25 per cent of the current work force is aged 45 or older, compared with about 40 per cent in Alberta, the council says. As a result, Alberta will need more new professionals to replace older ones leaving the field.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the expected areas of demand include:

Engineering technicians and technologists

Production technicians

Instrumentation and electronics technicians

Surveyor technologists.

In Nova Scotia, the need will be for geologists and engineers, the council says, such as:

Well engineers

Marine engineers

Drilling engineers

Structural engineers

Mechanical engineers

Electrical engineers.

Terrence Belford