The economic benefits of Marcellus Shale drilling have been well documented. There will be thousands and thousands of new jobs. Hotels, restaurants and such in small town USA are booming. Law firms and financial institutions are creating new divisions just to serve their new energy clients and the emerging number of Shaleionaires. Everybody knows, right? Wrong.
Last week I spoke to a high school class in a Pittsburgh urban neighborhood. Out of forty students, none had heard of Range Resources, Halliburton or ConocoPhillips...all leading players in the natural gas industry. When I asked what Consol Energy does, they told me that Consol Energy owns the arena in which the Pittsburgh Penguins play. Prior to that presentation, I met a young man who asked me, "Who is Marcellus Shale?" Earlier in the month, I attended a shale-related career fair; I did not see one young African-American male in attendance.
Just yesterday, a KDKA Radio host dedicated part of his show to Careers in Marcellus Shale, highlighting free training and education programs to help workers prepare. My KQV radio show this month will focus on the same topic as we interview two industry representatives about the growing number of new jobs related to this work. All great information, but really? How many young workers from inner-city Pittsburgh will be listening to KDKA or KQV radio?
Urban America's young workers, specifically young black males, are missing out on these opportunities. Perhaps what I am pointing out here speaks to a larger social issue. Still, our local workforce development systems can make efforts to assure this trend does not continue. I belong to a group in SW Pennsylvania that has been trying for two years to open an Energy Careers Center near the City of Pittsburgh so that residents of city neighborhoods have the opportunity to learn about, train for and go to work at jobs in this industry. That project has been met with resistance and has not secured financial support. Why? Again, maybe this discussion relates to a much larger social issue. Nonetheless, the discussion needs to start someplace.
Recently I had a similar experience with a young urban job seeker with regard to Marcellus Shale jobs--he had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the words "Marcellus Shale" to him. I might as well have been speaking Latin.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the disconnect between urban workers and the shale industry is spot on. I would go a bit further and say that, in terms of the shale industry, there is also a serious disconnect between various local workforce initiatives and the constituencies they are supposed to be serving. Not a surprising outcome actually, when one considers the Pittsburgh area is full of old-boy agencies(non-profit & governmental) that are often ineffectual and yet regularly receive funding (solely, it seems, because they always have).
Anyway, it's a bad situation, particularly for young inner city job seekers who might be interested in careers in the shale industry--jobs that would be available to them immediately if only they were privy to the necessary information and coordination, which apparently are unavailable to them at present.