CHALLENGES OF THE WORKFORCE AND TRAINING

Abstract

The future of the petroleum production and exploration industries must be examined in at least nine contexts: population, social, political, economic, environmental quality, employment and skills, physical flows, resource use and trade. Education and innovation ought to have a major impact on your industries, but universities are facing serious limitations, with a serious decline in students undertaking the enabling sciences (including geosciences), and where an increasing emphasis on the corporatisation of learning /research puts excessive emphasis on the short term.

The current political climate discourages serious consideration of complex, long-term factors. Issues such as energy efficiency deserve comprehensive discussion as Australia faces the dilemma of whether to follow the United States pattern of resource use or the European. Australia’s extraordinary tradition of urban development suggests that we will be increasingly heavy users of imported fuel.