Higher Ed partnership hopes to create new Marcellus Shale workforce

In the varied news clippings inked about the Marcellus Shale, there are several common threads. Many examine the push-pull between a state hungry for jobs and innovation and a state trying to be an environmental leader. And while the articles are generally well written, they all make a similar comparison between the shale drilling and the gold rush. But this comparison falls apart when you realize that, while it takes just one intrepid prospector to pan for gold, it takes 400 people in 150 occupations to drill a single well on the Marcellus Shale. And as the industry grows, it has become increasingly evident that, while our region has plenty of prospectors, we are short on people to hold the pans.

In an effort to create ShaleNet, a national model for Marcellus Shale recruitment, training and placement, a group of community colleges recently received a $4.964 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The effort, led by its two hubs at Westmoreland County Community College and Pennsylvania College of Technology, hopes to find and train interested and qualified workers across 69 counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

“Right now, most of the drilling force in Pennsylvania is from out of state, which makes sense because there is a lot of drilling in Oklahoma and Texas and Louisiana and energy companies bring their own crews in,” says Director of Workforce and Economic Development at Westmoreland County Community College Jim Hayes. “What we are trying to do is build our own workforce because these are skills that are not traditional for the region.”

Hayes and his partners have joined with other economic and community development partners, including the 10-county Pittsburgh region’s private sector leadership organization, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development to target nearby regions that might benefit from these training opportunities. The Marcellus Shale footprint is huge and while the industry has not expanded far into West Virginia and New York still holds a moratorium on drilling, ShaleNet organizers know that they cannot do it alone. There are just too many golden opportunities for one state population.

“This program covers pretty much all the shale areas of Pennsylvania,” says Hayes. “But if you look at the footprint of the field, you see that this touches more lives than our own.”

Source: Jim Hayes, Westmoreland County Community College
Writer: John Steele