Following a successful visit last year, Shell’s Girls in Energy group returned to Survivex today for an interactive tour of our world class training facility. The Girls in Energy programme offers a group of females aged 14 to 16, a unique insight into the oil and gas industry.
Recognising that there is a fundamental shortage of females in the sector, the initiative was developed by Shell and NE College to demonstrate the breadth of rewarding and exciting careers that can be forged within the energy industry.
John Raine, Communications & Social Performance Advisor at Shell explains, “Shell has a vital role to play in inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists. We need to develop and recruit the right people to meet one of the biggest challenges facing the world right now: Delivering affordable and sustainable energy, while reducing carbon emissions.
"We know the UK is facing a major shortage of STEM skills. Research tells us that we need to double the number of people going into engineering and critically we need to encourage more women to consider a career in the energy industry – who are traditionally are under-represented in the energy industry.
"So, Shell and NESCol have developed a Skills for Work programme called “Girls in Energy” where working in collaboration with our industry partners, like Survivex, we hope to open the students eyes to the wealth of careers available to them in the energy industry”.
The tour of Survivex, which forms part of a wider programme of events, gives the group the opportunity to learn more about the training undertaken by those in the offshore workforce. Activities included fire fighting, rigging and lifting, and a demonstration of the environmental effects simulator.
“Survivex has long supported programmes which encourage youngsters to consider the sector as a viable career option”, said Survivex CEO Andrew Green, “We developed our first Survivex for Schools initiative back in 2012 and have since seen many groups, including schools, colleges, graduate trainees and even scouts, visit our centre to develop their understanding of what we do at Survivex and how it relates to the industry as a whole. We were delighted to get involved with Shell’s Girls in Energy programme and thoroughly enjoyed welcoming the group to Survivex again this year”.
In 2014 the programme was filmed. View it here.
