Energy In Depth's Shawn:

"Yesterday, Ohio University hosted the 2^nd annual Shale and Beyond Conference at their Athens campus.  The panelists shared their views across the board at how best to prepare for Utica Shale development as it continues to grow and revitalize eastern Ohio.  In attendance were nearly one hundred community and business leaders throughout the shale developing region, all interested in how to best manage the development taking place in our great state.  Although there was a great turnout, it was Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP) and Chesapeake that stole the show.

In discussing workforce development, OOGEEP’s Rhonda Reda gave the audience a quick update on all of the exciting work her organization has accomplished over the past couple of years.  Rhonda wowed the audience with OOGEEP’s continued excellence at preparing Ohio’s firefighters (recently training their 1,000^th firefighter), teacher workshops, and scholarship programs.

The most interesting portion of her speech was focused on a very important subject: workforce development.  There is a common misconception that the majority of employment is with the major operators in Ohio. Through their expertise, OOGEEP found that contractors actually fill a lot of the roles for oil and gas development in the Utica/Point Pleasant.

“One company here in the state of Ohio, when you really look at that supply chain and just the number of jobs that this one company, and this is just what they track in the last two years.  See those dots there?  They have over one thousand vendors, okay.  So a lot of these jobs may not be with this producer themselves unless it is in the engineering, geophysical, geology, well tending areas, but a lot these are going to indirect jobs primarily in the contractor effort.” –Rhonda Reda

These positions are going to be filled by a skilled workforce.  To achieve this, Ohio must ensure our workers receive the training needed to obtain these well-paying jobs.  OOGEEP has closely worked with Ohio’s schools to audit their programs and find which schools offer the proper training for the many disciplines needed to fill industry jobs in the coming years.  Rhonda took the time to announce to the crowd that today OOGEEP will release some very exciting news."

READ THE REST: http://www.eidohio.org/oogeep-and-chesapeake-wow-audience-at-shale-...