Choosing the right oil training courses is one of the most reliable ways to invest in your career and prepare yourself for success. Phil from Gastec says “The industry is competitive, and the challenges can be daunting but the opportunities are endless and the field is challenging, which is what many high achievers want.” When selecting your next set of training courses, consider these criteria as you choose the right training course for you.
1. Assess Your Career Goals
You need to know where you want to go in the oil and gas industry before you can choose a path to get there. The right course depends on the career goals that you are trying to achieve. With a field as vast as the oil and gas sector, the sky’s the limit. Are you aiming for a technical role or a management position? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? The courses that you need to take should provide a clear path to your stated goals and destination.
2. Research the Course Content
Not all courses are created equal! The course content should be a combination of practical and theoretical knowledge that will help you in the field or the boardroom, depending on your goals. In a field as large as the oil and gas industry, you can be everything from a technician in the field, extracting the oil, the chemist in the lab, refining the oil or the geologist discovering where the oil and gas is located. You could be the most important pair of hands in the field or the most important mind in the executive suite and the courses you choose will help you get there.
Soft skills such as communication, leadership and conflict management should also be considered, as they teach skills that are just as critical to moving your career forward as any other practical or technical skill. Regulations and compliance are other course topics that might interest you if your goals lie in that area of the oil and gas sector.
3. Consider Course Flexibility and Delivery Format
Do you do better in person or online? Does your schedule or the demands of your current workplace restrictions on your time? Course flexibility and format are important considerations because they can help or hinder your progress through the course, the difficulty of your learning curve and have an impact on the total amount of information that you can absorb.
Some courses can be done in the field, whereas others must be done in the classroom. More than ever, online classes are allowing people who may be in distant or remote locations to take part in critical training courses, giving you the option of when and where to take your course.
4. Check Course Accreditation and Reputation
The most important part of a course is that the knowledge is transferred from the teacher to the trainee, allowing them to apply their newfound skills in the field. However, another equally important part of the equation is the acceptance and recognition of the accreditation by other organisations.
These courses can also be evaluated based on the reputation they uphold among the previous attendees. Great courses have great reviews and are well-regarded by professionals in the field whereas poor quality courses don’t have the type of positive word-of-mouth that good courses create.
5. Look for Job Placement Support
Some courses offer a significant benefit that others do not, which is the promise of help with job placement after the course. The networks and connections that can be open to you after attending one of these courses may be significant and should be considered when choosing a program.
6. Evaluate the Course Cost and Duration
The oil and gas sector is an industry that never sleeps and the need to educate yourself means that you will need to step away, at least momentarily, to take these courses. Consider the cost and duration of the courses to ensure that they are worth the investment.
7. Invest in Your Future
Courses in the oil and gas industry can make a significant impact on your future success and prosperity, and you are worth investing in. Use this criteria to help make the best decisions as you decide to educate and better yourself in the pursuit of a rewarding and exciting career in oil and gas.
