Event: From Office to Offshore: Addressing the Skills Gap

Great Yarmouth Business Breakfast – Office to Offshore: Addressing the Skills Gap

It was a chilly but bright morning that saw delegates heading to The Imperial Hotel in Great Yarmouth for the first business breakfast of the autumn. As is the way, the delegates got down to networking over coffee and tea before sitting down to a tasty breakfast. Our featured speaker was Ian Moulton, Operations Improvement Manager for Perenco, who was there to discuss the importance of addressing the skills gap within the Oil and Gas industry.

Ian explained how Perenco are tackling the issue that affects the entire sector stating that it was started with an apprentice programme 2004, which has seen them take on at least 3 apprentices a year and a graduate programme started in 2011 that has had an increase in the amount of graduates in place year on year. As for the future, Perenco are looking to work locally with schools and colleges to get young people interested and involved in the industry earlier and supporting a ‘Military in Industry’ initiative. Despite this Ian pointed out that they still have to defer projects because they can’t find the right resources.

Ian finished his presentation with the question – How do we encourage the next generation to train for our industry and stay within the local area? – as a challenge to businesses to think what they could do.

The breakfast also saw a short presentation from Andrew Stevenson and Emma Pawsey from our featured charity – Broadland Meridian, and three 60 Second Speakers, two of which are new Chamber members, took the challenge to introduce themselves and what they do in a minute.

We heard from Bruce Hart from Paul Robinson Partnership (UK) LLP, Jason Brighton from Wellton Energy, and a two prong approach from Mark Lawrence and John Taylor from Pathfinder Performance.

With a bit of ‘Safari Networking’ to finish off the event, it was a great welcome back after the summer break.

View photographs here

Our next breakfast event is Tales from Westminster: A Norwich Business Breakfast on Friday 11th October – for more information Click Here