Shell expands training center

• Advocate staff report
• Published: Dec 4, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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ROBERT — A $21 million training center expansion by energy giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC in Tangipahoa Parish mirrors what Louisiana must do to solve its work-force challenges, said Gov. Bobby Jindal.

On Wednesday, Jindal dedicated 55,000 square feet of facility improvements at Shell’s Robert Training and Conference Center, where the company supports the training needs of all Shell operations in the Western Hemisphere.

The center specializes in offshore exploration skills and plays host to corporate seminars and retreats. It also leases space to other companies, who make up about 30 percent of the annual conference business in Robert.

“These are the kinds of investments that we have to make, not only from the state perspective but from the private sector,” Jindal said.

Jindal said state work force efforts have included funneling $8.5 million to secondary schools and community and technical colleges for dual enrollment programs that give students early career-oriented training. Funding formulas that once penalized technical colleges for training in needed fields, such as welding and nursing, now reward the schools for meeting high-demand training needs.

Jindal said 70 percent of businesses looking to expand in, or move to, Louisiana say having a skilled work force is one of their top two concerns.

The Shell facility in Robert addresses those concerns in a critical way, said Frank Glaviano Sr., vice president of Shell Production Americas.

“It’s not enough just to run an ad or hope for people to knock on your door,” he said. “You’ve got to go out and get the best talent and then train them to be even better. So this facility is about work-force development to not allow the brain drain of Louisiana to continue.”

Glaviano, who has worked for Shell 32 years, said the expansion was built, in part, to be proactive in dealing with the “crew change” Shell expects to see in the next few years.

Shell has two major demographic groups among its onshore and offshore employees in the Gulf region and in the Americas.

There are the employees who were hired during the boom years of the late 1970s and early 1980s and those who have been with the company less than five years.

Many of the Shell employees who came in the boom times, Glaviano said, have retired or are close to retiring, while 40 percent of Shell engineers have fewer than three years experience.

The Shell facility will help bridge that experience gap, he said.