Program provides technical training for transitioning workers
When a Calgary environmental services company heard about a program that upskilled displaced energy sector employees for new careers, it was intrigued.
So 360 Energy Liability Management reached out to the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) in 2021.
“In conversation with them, they mentioned the Edge Up program where there were previous oil and gas energy workers that were pivoting into programming and data science,” says Phil Johnson, retired chief technology and innovation officer at 360 Energy Liability Management in Calgary.
With many clients that are energy companies, it made sense to hire somebody “who would have the depth and breadth of experience from their previous career to leverage into their programming life so that they would understand the subject audience,” he says.
360 hired Chantelle Carley, who had a previous petroleum engineering career, and an MBA specializing in finance. She also did the Edge Up program to explore programming, says Johnson.
“We thought it was just a ton of horsepower to apply to what we had envisioned, and so we weren’t going to miss that opportunity. We picked up Chantelle first as an intern and then we hired her on full-time, and now she’s the principal data scientist at the company,” he says.
“Literally, she’s been there, done that, and understood the business environment.”
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‘Major downturn’ for oil and gas workers
The Edge Up program was originally born out of tough economic circumstances in the city.
“In 2014, 2015, that’s when we really saw a pretty major downturn in the sector, which unfortunately led to a lot of really highly skilled people — often with STEM backgrounds — that were displaced from the labour market or at risk of displacement,” says Alexandra Cutean, chief research officer at ICTC in Vancouver.
“What we really wanted to do was address this need and a couple of conversations we had with the government of Alberta and also our partner on the Edge Up initiative, Calgary Economic Development, [were about] trying to essentially figure out ‘How do we keep these people in Calgary, those highly skilled individuals, contributing to the economy?’”
While the energy sector faced these problems, which saw about 25,000 workers displaced in 2015, according to Statistics Canada, Calgary’s digital economy was expanding by 27% in December 2022 over pre-pandemic levels.
“What we thought was, maybe there’s a skills overlap here with the people that have STEM backgrounds, maybe they have relevant skills that can be applied to the tech sector,” says Cutean.
The Edge Up program provided short-duration training to workers, says Cutean.
“And then, in the last couple of years, we essentially scaled that program, training an additional 300 people from more jobs that were replaced, including those that were not necessarily traditionally STEM so finance, HR, marketing professionals, to more in-demand jobs in the tech sector.”
The Edge Up program, which has wrapped up its initial round of funding by the Future Skills Centre, first retrained around 100 former oil and gas workers, then a further 300 in its second phase. The website remains available for displaced workers to see which of their skills might be valuable through a skills matching tool, which is run by Calgary Economic Development.
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Success from former employment
At 360 Energy Liability Management, Edge Up provided “a fount of knowledge” from someone who had previously worked in the oil and gas industry, says Johnson.
“[Carley] had learned so much not just about programming but about general data science and larger software systems that are common in any workplace so it became more of a bonus having her onboard with the subject matter that she did.”
After the upskilling training was completed, participants were able to access trainers.
“The program also made their teachers available to the students, post-certificate, and so sometimes she could circle back to these subject-matter experts and say, ‘I’m trying to do this’ and they gave her some ideas, and so we really got to take advantage of a lot of depth and breadth of support there,” says Johnson.
Not only did the displaced employees get the technical training through the Edge Up initiative, other types of guidance were provided, according to Cutean.
“They also received training on soft skills — on how to present yourself in an interview, how to develop your CV and your LinkedIn profile in a way that’s going to be attractive to employers — so a lot of these additional wraparound supports that really aid in the job search process and help them land an opportunity a bit faster.”
Positive reactions from employers
The program’s success was confirmed by a survey, says Cutean, as around 85% of employers reported they would be open to hiring career transitioners in the future while 95% of those that have engaged transitioners viewed the experience positively.
“From the employer perspective, what we heard was overwhelmingly quite positive. A lot of employers are familiar now with career transitioning partly because of the program,” she says.
The lesson for anyone in HR who might be reluctant to hire these type of displace worker is “be open to taking that leap of faith that somebody who is pivoting their career, believe them and the work and support that they’re putting into the retraining,” says Johnson.
“It’s difficult for some of those people like Chantelle, to have employers believe that yes, she’s made this transition and this is her new life and she’s not just going to turn around and go back to the oil industry.”
