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Occupations
The Cogent sector has a relatively high share of machine and transport operatives with more than one fifth of total employment in the sector in 2004. By industry, the occupational profile of the sector is very varied with a significant number of professionals employed within the nuclear industry (38%) and the oil and gas industry (21%).
Employment in the sector is expected decline over the next ten years especially amongst the Elementary occupations. Employment in these occupations is projected to decline by one third over the next 10 years and total replacement will be zero to 2014. The priority areas for Cogent in the next ten years are going to be management occupations and operative level occupations.
Source: Working Futures 2006 and Cogent Sector Skill Needs Assessment 2006
Key occupational trends:
- Managers in the sector tend to be graduates with professional qualifications, but need to maintain and develop their managerial skills
- Process supervisors and engineers will continue to be an important group in the sector requiring continual updating of skills, knowledge and competence
- Technicians are seen as one of the main foci in both recruitment and retention as they form part of the career path for supervisors and engineers.
- Process operators form the largest group in the sector, but it has a rapidly ageing profile
- Generic industry-based training and competence (including health, safety, security and environment) is needed for support staff, such as accountants and administrators
Source: Cogent 2003
Occupational profile of the Cogent workforce by industry, 2004
Source: Cogent Sector Skill Needs Assessment 2006, table 5.1a. Data compiled using the 2004 Labour Force Survey and the Nuclear and Radiological Skills Study (2002). Petroleum does not include forecourt operations as the Labour Force Survey does not separate these roles from sale and maintenance of motor vehicles.
For further details on the composition of the Cogent workforce by occupations and future changes see:
Occupational hard-to-fill vacancies and skill shortage vacancies
(Please note that this data relates to the Cogent sector in England only.)
17% of Cogent sector employers in England report vacancies, these are predominantly for:
- process, plant and machine operatives (20%)
- sales and customer staff (23%)
- associate professional and technical occupations (17%)
Of the hard-to-fill vacancies, sales and customer service staff and associate professional and technical occupations again form high proportions of the total (both 28%), but also process, plant and machine operatives (15%).
Skill shortage vacancies are predominantly for associate professional and technical occupations (38%), machine operatives (18%), sales and customer service staff (15%) and skilled trades (11%).
Source: SSDA Matrix (2006) from National Employer Skills Survey for England (2005)
Occupational roles and sources of information
A variety of key roles in the oil, gas and petroleum sector are identified by Prospects and detailed information is available.
Some selected examples include: drilling engineer; distribution/logistics manager; environmental manager; geoscientist; geophysicist (field seismologist); mudlogger; and wellsite geologist.
For information on these sector roles and others go to the Prospects website. Sector case studies are also available.
Last cached: 2008-05-11 02:36 PM