Energy Minister tells companies: Hire our young professionals

ENERGY Minister Franklin Khan is calling on energy companies, both local and international, to make a more concerted effort to train and recruit young professionals who had been studying for years.

Khan said state and oil companies, through scholarships, have invested heavily in tertiary education and while many of them have graduated, most were unemployed or underemployed and left disappointed.

He said despite the significant funding for the training of young energy professionals there was a substantial amount of unemployment among them.

Khan was speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Energy Resources Conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (TT Sector) at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain.

He said when the ministry advertised for six vacancies for petroleum engineers last year, a staggering 241 people applied for the positions.

“That is an untenable condition for the country to be in. They are being disappointed and we are calling on the industry to make a concerted effort in terms of terms of internship programmes or some form of engagement because we cannot all that talent go to waste,” he said.

Khan commented on yesterday’s Newsday lead story headlined Dusty Degrees, which related the woes of many university students who attained degrees but were unable to get jobs. Their degrees remaining untouched, “just another page in the dozens of resumes and applications they diligently filled out”, the article said.

When asked why they could not find jobs, some said they applied successfully, there were no jobs in their field, or they had no experience in the field.

“It is not nice to be a graduate coming out of school with so much expectation, some of these can be our children. We have to start to train our young generation.

“That is how the industry survives, that is how the economy survives. This is how countries have longevity with their development programmes.

“We have a responsibility to protect the integrity of our young professionals,” the minister said.