O&G sector still lacks quality manpower

KUALA LUMPUR: ‎Malaysia's oil and gas industry (O&G) still lacks quality manpower to meet its growing needs, says Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) Vice Chancellor, Datuk Abdul Rahim Hashim.

‎"Last year, Petronas recruited about 1,600 new graduates and from the industry perspective generally, I expect a higher number to meet the needs.

" The number of UTP graduates on average, including other disciplines, is about 1,300 annually. O&G graduates number about 1,000. Even here, there are some who venture into other industries," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference Asia 2014 (OTC Asia 2014) here today.

Abdul Rahman was a panelist in the fourth panel session of the conference on Industry Technology Initiatives.

From the quality aspect, he said UTP did not have a problem in producing graduates, to meet the O&G industry's demands.

"On average, more than 90 per cent of the UTP graduates secured jobs within six months of graduating and between 60 to 70 per cent, in the O&G industry.

"This is due to the seven-month industry programme undertaken by UT‎P, where after three years of their study, the students are required to gain exposure by working in it," he added