Marcellus Shale is Not a Person

In June of 2012 I wrote an article titled, “Marcellus Shale: The Urban Disconnect.” That article documented the fact that many inner-city job seekers know very little about the energy sector and specifically know very little about the Marcellus Shale Industry. Two and a half years later, has much changed?

I recently met a young lady who told me that she works for Consol Energy. I asked what she did at Consol, and she told me that she sells concessions. “You sell concessions for Consol?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied, “during Penguins games and concerts.” I asked, “Do you work for Consol Energy or do you work at the Consol Energy Center?” She clarified that she worked at the Consol Energy Center, but explained to me that she did not understand the difference between working for Consol Energy and working at the Consol Energy Center. I used this as an opportunity to ask her, and the rest of my class, if they knew what Consol Energy is or does? The entire group told me that Consol Energy owns the arena.

This turned into a productive discussion about the energy sector in general. All of my students in this particular group are young, inner-city residents seeking employment. We talked about opportunities within the energy sector. We discussed ‘Green Jobs.’ When the topic of Marcellus Shale came up, one student, a young African-American woman from Pittsburgh’s North Side, asked, “Who is Marcellus Shale?” This took me back to 2012 when I ran an employment center that was located in a low-income neighborhood just northwest of Downtown Pittsburgh. We had a bulletin board where we posted jobs in the Marcellus Shale Industry, and our staff often spoke to local high school students about career opportunities within this sector. In my June of 2012 article I wrote,

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.

One might say that little has changed in 2 ½ years. I would argue that much has. For example, energy sector recruiters have deployed a new strategy aimed at recruiting from their competitors. One of my previous clients has worked on a fracking crew for approximately 5 years. In that time, he has worked for three different companies because competitors have consistently offered him more money to ‘switch teams.’ Shale Industry representatives have engaged in media, web and advocacy campaigns designed to attract new talent to the industry, but mostly these campaigns target consumers who are already informed and/or working in the industry. The community colleges have launched vocational skills training programs designed to prepare new workers for the industry, but these seem to be most successful in rural communities. Finally, industry representatives have also formed focus groups and planning committees in the hope of establishing new talent pipelines. All the while, an untapped, uninformed labor pool awaits an opportunity.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) Education is a critical component in preparing a new workforce for opportunities in the energy sector. Chevron has recently partnered with a consortium of regional economic development organizations to form the Appalachia Partnership Initiative with a mission to get rural students in the region STEM-ready. This is a fantastic program that will help expose young people to opportunities in the industry, and it is the type of initiative that needs to be replicated in inner-city schools.

Career Days, job fairs and workshops held in urban schools and neighborhoods will also increase awareness and industry visibility. In addition, energy sector recruiters should look to unlikely places for talent. For example, the US Probation & Pretrial Services Office of Western Pennsylvania supervises over 800 men and women seeking employment. Granted, these job seekers face a criminal record as a barrier to employment, but these same job seekers represent a small percentage of approximately 2 million American workers who have been trained and have multiple years of experience in the fields of welding, construction, green technologies, electronics and land remediation. Imagine the social impact if the industry made a concentrated effort to engage this untapped labor pool as opposed to turning them away because of past criminal convictions.

The point is that the Shale Industry, and even the energy sector as a whole, has a real opportunity to engage and educate new workers in 2015 simply through replication of existing initiatives. If STEM education, vocational training and awareness programs could be aimed at students and workers from urban areas, the industry would be sure to experience growth in talent pipelines. Sure. There are hurdles and barriers to overcome. But, imagine the economic and social benefits that would come along with tapping into the existing untapped labor pool. Less crime…more tax payers and home owners…a recruiting challenge overcome.