Two West Virginia colleges received $100,000 ($50K each) in grant money from the Dominion Foundation to be used for hands-on oil and natural gas training. WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin presented the money in a ceremony on Thursday.
The press release from Gov. Tomblin’s office:
The Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in Pittsburgh has developed a new certificate program in Land Administration in cooperation with drilling company EQT Corp. Land administrators make an average annual salary of $60,000 and work in an energy company’s land records, division orders or contracts area to protect the company’s oil and gas assets (leases, rights-of-way and wells).
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article earlier this week highlighting the tension now being felt at many colleges—especially public universities—over whether or not to allow shale gas drilling on or under their land.
The article opens by citing Ohio University’s struggle with the issue. The state has mandated that public universities inventory their assets—the land they own—to see whether or not it’s suitable for Utica Shale drilling. Some schools, like Ohio U., are resisting, claiming their “community” is pro-sustainability and anti-fracking.
The article quotes extensively from Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, a well-known Cornell professor who has made a full-time occupation out of bashing fracking and shale gas drilling.
In what is believed to be the first of its kind for Ohio, high school students at Marlington High School (Alliance, OH) can take a two-year course in oil and gas technologies starting this fall. The new course will prepare students with the skills they need to work in the rapidly growing shale drilling industry.
From a recent press article:
A few weeks ago the new natural gas institute at SUNY University at Buffalo (UB) released a 52-page study that found environmental problems caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania were isolated, mostly minor and on the decline (see this MDN story for a copy of the study). The high priests of the enviro-left could not let a study favorable to the drilling industry stand, so a fast and furious mud-slinging contest began to see if they could besmirch, ridicule, criticize and otherwise try to blunt the effect of such a study. Their concerted (and coordinated?) campaign is having an effect.
The University at Buffalo is now distancing itself from the study, even though the study was rigorous and academically sound. Such are the vagaries (and lack of intestinal fortitude) in academe.
Penn State Cooperative Extension and Penn State University researchers continue their research into how the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom affects the state. Recently they issued findings from a survey of 940 school districts across PA (see this MDN story). Earlier this week, they issued another report in their Marcellus Education Fact Sheet series, titled: “Marcellus Shale Gas Development and Pennsylvania School Districts: What Are the Implications for School Expenditures and Tax Revenues?” (full report embedded below).
The State University of New York (SUNY) system with 64 campuses across the state has its first bona fide shale institute, but it’s not located in the hotbed of where shale drilling will happen, when it happens. Drilling will likely be prevalent in what is known as the Southern Tier of New York, counties like Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben, and perhaps northward into Tompkins, Cortland and Chenango, and east to Otsego, and Delaware. That’s likely where you’ll see the first permits and the first wells drilled.
But the first SUNY shale institute will be located at the University of Buffalo. From the UB press release:
Penn State Cooperative Extension recently published a new fact sheet with results and conclusions from a survey of 940 school districts about Marcellus Shale gas development and what it means for Pennsylvania’s schools (a copy is embedded below). So far, in areas with a lot of drilling, there’s been little in the way of new revenue for local schools, although those areas have benefited economically in general. Some respondents expressed concern about drop-out rates increasing as students leave to take advantage of high-paying jobs. Road damage and traffic congestion are also problems in some areas affecting school buses. But it’s not all bad news for schools.
Exxon Mobil and General Electric announced yesterday that each company is investing $1 million to help fund training in shale development best practices at three universities, including PennState.
Heading to grad school and want to make $120K a year when you graduate? You might consider an advanced degree in geology or geophysics and working in the shale gas industry.
Another Pennsylvania University is now offering training for those who want a job working in the Marcellus Shale, this time in Western PA.
The Pennsylvania College of Technology (part of the Penn State University system) continues to innovate by offering training for those interested in jobs and careers in the gas drilling industry. This time, they’re offering courses to high schoolers:
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $294,689 grant to the Pennsylvania College of Technology to educate and train high school and college students for careers in the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry, according to officials from the college and a press release issued this week by U.S. Rep. Chris Carney’s office.
The college will use much of the money to develop and implement college-level courses that will be offered at high schools in Bradford, Sullivan and other counties to provide training that will be useful in jobs in the natural gas extraction industry, said Jenette Carter, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s director of outreach for K-12.
The high school courses will benefit students from 23 school districts in central and northern Pennsylvania…The high school courses for which college credit will be granted are technical or vo-tech courses in areas such as welding, electronics, diesel technology, heavy equipment operation and repair, forestry, and information technology (networking).*
*Towanda Daily Review (May 6) – High school courses that will lead to careers in gas industry being implemented locally
Colleges in Pennsylvania are adding programs to train workers for Marcellus Shale jobs. And a lot of workers will be required. MDN wrote about the presentation by Larry Michael (Pennsylvania College of Technology, PCT) and James Ladlee (Penn State Cooperative Extension) at the Binghamton Natural Gas Development Summit and their study that says every well drilled translates into 12 full-time jobs. Larry and James helped establish the Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center at PCT in Williamsport, where they are training students for a variety of careers:
Careers include welders, construction workers, drivers and machine operators and fabricators.Tracy Brundage, [PCT’s] managing director of the Workforce Development and Continuing Education programs, said that as the landscape of the Northern Tier changes, so too do course offerings at the college.
She said input from energy companies has been influential in the design of 21 new courses.*
In Scranton, Lackawanna College established an applied science degree in Oil and Gas Production Technology program in December 2008.
To prepare potential employees for [Marcellus-related gas] jobs, Lackawanna College offers an associate’s degree in natural gas technology and is developing an operating and maintenance degree program in compression technology that could debut next fall.
In addition, the college will soon start giving accounting students at its Towanda Center the option of customizing their degree to prepare them to work in the accounting side of the natural gas industry.
Last week, Chesapeake Energy donated $50,000 to help Lackawanna College expand its Natural Gas Technology Program at its New Milford Center campus in Susquehanna County. The college plans to use the money for capital-equipment costs in fitting out their new facilities for the program that began last fall.*
As drilling in the Marcellus Shale continues to expand in Pennsylvania (and when it finally begins in New York), many thousands of new jobs will need to be filled by local people. And those people will need to be trained. Forward-thinking colleges and technical schools are expanding now to meet the demand.
*Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Mar 24) – Some colleges add programs to train workers