Area colleges offer training to grow local shale workforce

LITTLE ROCK — While Searcy hotel rooms fill with out-of-state workers in the natural gas-drilling industry, area community colleges are working to ensure those jobs can be filled by local Arkansans.

Arkansas State University-Searcy, a technical campus of ASU-Beebe, offers a free floor hand training program. The one-week, 40-hour course includes two days of hands-on training with the campus' lifesized simulator rig. The only thing students pay for is a drug screening.

Robert Watkins is director/ instructor for the program. The east Texan has 31 years of topto-bottom experience in the oil industry. Those who successfully complete the course leave with certificates in safety, CPR and forklift operation and the federally regulated pass they need to legally be on drilling rig sites.

"When they leave here they are ready to go out on drilling rigs as trainees," Watkins said. "Or they could get jobs in other parts of the industry, like with service companies - that's what a lot of our graduates have gone on to do. But any aspect of the industry, they can get a foot in the door, which is important in an industry like this."

Watkins uses his own contacts to help the many of the students network and find jobs. ASUSearcy Vice Chancellor Don Harlan said a confirmed 52 percent of Watkins' former students have gone on to work for drilling companies and he suspects the figure is even higher. The program started in April, and about 250 students have gone through the course since then.

The program is free because of grants and donations from many sources, ranging from major gas industry companies from out of state to local businesses. Chesapeake, Nomac and Union Drilling - natural gas industry companies with interests in the area - donated $200,000 to have the simulator rig built and shipped to ASU-Searcy.

However, Harlan said it was ASU-Searcy - not the drilling companies - who got the ball rolling for the program, which is the only one in the state with such a life-like simulator rig and often attracts out-of-state students. The drilling companies also sometimes use the rig to train new hires or retrain employees.

"Back when it became a reality that the Fayetteville Shale action was here - that play was real and they were coming to Searcy - it became a question for us," Harlan said. "It became clear that they were going to be in the area drilling wells, and we asked ourselves, 'What can wedo to train local Arkansans to assist this industry?'"

Harlan used his contacts at High Pains Technology Center in Woodward, Okla., to start the program. High Plains officials used experience and grant money to get ASU-Searcy's drilling program started and also ran the program in the beginning. ASUSearcy took over in July.

ASU-Searcy has received so many donations for the program that it had to do little more than allocate the land where the simulator is located and provide the money to make the landscaping changes necessary to prepare for the rig's installation at the spot.

Harlan said he thinks local businesses were so ready to help because they see potential in what the gas-drilling industry will do for the area and want to do everything they can to welcome it and ensure local Arkansans benefit by direct involvement.

"I hate to think what our community would be like without the gas industry," Harlan said. "[After job losses in other industries ] it's kept us floating - not only floating, but progressing."

In the future Harlan said ASU-Searcy's program will expand and adapt. Additional simulators are planned so that the school can train students not only to drill wells but to maintain them during gas extraction. Watkins obtained the necessary certification to teach such skills last month, and Harlan said the course may be offered sometime in spring or summer 2009. Several drilling companies have already expressed interest in donating money for the simulators needed to teach the course.

Aside from ASU-Searcy, theother major option for area students is the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, which offers an associate of applied science degree inpetroleum technology and two different levels of shorter-term certification courses. A deal is inthe works so that Morrilton students could count ASU-Searcy's training classes toward their degree. However, Harlan said ASUSearcy has no plans to expand their in-class offerings.

"What we're hearing from people in the industry is that's not what they need," Harlan said. "They're looking for hands-on skills more than book work."

The certificates students acquire through the program have to be renewed on a regular basis, so Harlan said ASU-Searcy plans to organize renewal classes to cater to return students' needs.

ASU-Beebe has also seen an upsurge in interest in truckdriving training programs as the number of trucks on area roads has increased significantly because of Fayetteville Shale play. The school is considering offering such programs at itsASU-Newport technical campus, Harlan said.

In the meantime, Harlan said ASU-Searcy will probably have to start charging an application fee for its current floor hand training program after Jan. 1, 2009. The program is constantly flooded with applications, but too often students agree to the course only to not show up for class. Harlan said an application deposit may cut down on the problem and make the program easier to manage.

Elsewhere in the Three Rivers area, another ASU-Beebe technical campus, ASU-Heber Springs, offers a certificate of petroleum technology. The University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville is considering adding drilling industry classes to their course offerings, but such ideas have a long way to go before becoming reality, Assistant to the Chancellor Tina Paul said.

- awidner@ arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 62, 65 on 10/02/2008