THE 2022 Budget strives to address a wide variety of issues as Malaysia rebuilds its economy and moves beyond Covid-19.
Employment and upskilling of the workforce continue to be one of the key priority areas from the previous budget, seeing as lockdown measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 have had a substantial impact on jobs and sources of income across all industries, in particular oil and gas services and equipment (OGSE).
The OGSE industry has been facing challenges since the global economy was hit by one of the largest oil price declines back in mid-2014.
Employers have long worried that the industry would face difficulties in attracting, obtaining and retaining talent when it eventually recovers.
Ageing workforce aside, companies also need to contend with talent fleeing to other industries for good.
The industry was dealt with another significant blow last year when governments around the world imposed restrictions on economic activities and international travel, which destroyed demand and sent oil prices plummeting to record lows.
This forced companies to review staffing costs and headcounts as they navigated the low oil price landscape, further compounding the industry's talent crisis.
It is also worth noting that the oil and gas industry has always relied heavily on experienced foreign hires.
Malaysia hires a significant number of foreign experts, particularly in the drilling rigs, exploration and engineering design categories, per Petronas Activity Outlook 2019-2021.
There is a slew of unresolved issues within the industry, which includes a mismatch of "employable" skills among local graduates against industry expectations as well as the need for a wider pool of experienced talent to address a brain drain of experienced Malaysian oil and gas talent to lucrative opportunities in other oil-producing countries.
A 2019/2020 report by Institute for Labour Market Information and Analysis and TalentCorp suggest occupations in the oil and gas industry are hard to fill due to candidates' insufficient technical skills and relevant job experience.
Furthermore, Petronas's 2018 study on Malaysia OGSE Talent Landscape points to a significant experience gap in Drilling and Underwater Services between junior and experienced talent.
Inadequate local training providers and updated syllabus for competency certifications is partly to blame.
As the industry pivots to recovery, enhancing new skills need to also reflect the shift required by the sector and oil majors as they move to greener ways of extracting hydrocarbons.
This will involve harnessing technology and innovative approaches to reduce the carbon footprint for sustainable business growth.
As companies start to automate, digitalise and embark on technology advancements such as big data and artificial intelligence, having or developing skilled talent in these areas is essential to improve productivity, efficiency and safety in business operations.
And as more companies acknowledge the importance of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) practices, this is also reflected in the changing talent needs. The 2022 Budget has laid out efforts to encourage upskilling and training related to ESG.
Government interventions to ensure Malaysians at large are provided with sufficient upskilling and reskilling programmes, also include various training platforms under the Penjana initiative.
Moreover, in April, the National OGSE Industry Blueprint 2021-2030 was launched, where talent has been identified as one of the key focus areas to ensure the development of the OGSE sector.
Various agencies are collaborating to develop plans that ensure the talent issue is addressed in its entirety.
Nevertheless, beyond the government's role and support, for the oil and gas industry to remain relevant and attractive, industry players need to leverage this unprecedented crisis as a catalytic moment to accelerate significant shifts in the industry's ecosystem.
It is only when the industry is on board to grab new opportunities that it can witness the fruits of implemented initiatives — and that highly skilled talent can be developed and will gravitate back to them.
The writer is senior manager, corporate strategy and research at Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corporation