Feature - New Marcellus Shale Education And Training Center Being Formed

For those on the outside looking in at the shale-gas drilling boom blossoming in Pennsylvania, profiting off it can seem daunting: Only selected landowners have been blessed with the gas, the investment prices aren't reliably positive, and the vast majority of the technology and know-how originate in Texas, meaning many of the jobs go to out-of-town workers.

 

But all that might soon change. Officially formed in January, the Marcellus Shale Education and Training Center, a collaboration of Pennsylvania College of Technology and the Pennsylvania State University Cooperative Extension, started quickly, meeting with industry representatives to identify the jobs the industry will create--and what skills Pennsylvanians will need to fill them.

 

From there, the center, which was first conceived in September, plans to design a training curriculum for each position, to be implemented at Penn Tech and exported for free to technical training centers throughout the state, said Jeffrey Lorson, an industrial technology specialist who's leading the center's formation at Penn Tech(photo).

 

"With the escalation and the things with Marcellus, there was clearly a need in the workforce," he says. "We knew that we had a tremendous fit to support the industry… They definitely realize if they can hire local folks for these jobs, it's more cost effective for them, but they need to train the workforce."

 

Within the state, the roughly 6,500-student Penn Tech is uniquely qualified for that role, already boasting a slew of continued training, certification courses and two- and four-year degrees in a variety of fields, from welding to heavy-equipment operation.

 

That's why the shale-drilling center is not so much a facility with its own courses, like a college within a university, but more of a guide to offerings at the college that create a resume attractive to companies in the industry. It's also about creating a brand recognized and respected by both employers and employees.

 

The goal is to create cohesion between the education levels, from high school through college, and between the career tracks, Lorson says.

 

"Our idea is not to have everybody developing something" different, he says. Like any other college on a Tuesday afternoon, Penn Tech in downtown Williamsport is bustling with students. But instead of a blackboard, most of the classrooms are packed with machinery, from welding stations to programmable automation controllers.

 

And many of those machines have direct application to the natural gas industry. Because much of the training is foundational, such as the principles of hydraulics, they're "something that's already taught here," Lorson says. "The concepts don't change." In fact, any machinery the school will have to add is "probably relatively minimal because we have such infrastructure in place," he said.

 

What might change, however, is the examples teachers use. "Every time you get some outside experience, you want to keep it relevant to class," says Tom Livingstone, an associate professor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing. "It's much better to say, 'We're currently working with a company right now.'"

 

Some jobs, such as instrument calibration, on-the-ground telemetry and surveying, will likely have to be done by locals because they're necessary well before drillers arrive and exist well after they're gone, according to Lorson.

 

"We've been discussing the prospect with them, and it looks like it could be a very useful tool for the industry if all parties can come to agreement on what the overall goals should be, and I think that's very feasible," says Stephen Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association.

 

"However, there's no easy answer to the question of whether industry will embrace a relatively inexperienced workforce. "The center has the potential to provide a very meaningful training options for local residents. What that means remains to be seen," Rhoads says. "In some cases, a local workforce is essential."

 

Still, the center is moving forward now in order not to miss the opportunity, as similar institutions in Texashave done, says Lorson. There, the education tracks are only now being finalized, about a decade after the play took off.

 

The college's many meetings with industry representatives are hammering out how many positions will need to be filled, in what careers and over how many years, Lorson says. The school is currently performing a work-needs study and hopes to finish in May. A report scheduled for June release will direct the school's decision-making on training tracks.

 

"As we move forward, there's probably not a lot of things we can't do," says Larry Michael, executive director of workforce and economic development at Penn Tech. "None of us know exactly where this is headed, but we want to be on the wave."