North Dakota Energy Explorers: Fueling career dreams

Supporting a new Boy Scouts of America energy industry-focused education program

When children dream about their future, they tend to pluck career aspirations from the usual suspects – firefighter, rock star, doctor, teacher. But when youth plan for their future, they need a lot more than the usual choices.

It is, says Kent Ellis, a paradox of youth – faced with planning for their education and their future, with little exposure to the options. “There’s a difference between having a good education and having the skills for the workforce, the skills for a career,” says Ellis, energy careers co-ordinator with the North Dakota Petroleum Council. “We want kids to be able to articulate that difference and to act on it.”

With that in mind – and with North Dakota’s booming oil and gas economy as a backdrop – the North Dakota Petroleum Council has partnered with the Boy Scouts of America and local industry to create a new career education program.

The North Dakota Energy Explorers will equip youth aged 14 through 20 with hands-on energy career experiences. The program is the first of its kind among a series of Career Explorers programs taught by volunteer industry professionals, and operated by the Scouts nationwide. The energy career curriculum in Minot, N.D., was ignited by Katie Haarsager, an Enbridge community relations advisor.

While the program is just getting off the ground, and seeking more participants, organizers hope to meet monthly to explore careers in North Dakota’s booming energy industry. Enbridge will continue to participate, offering outings to teach participants about pipeline careers.

“Communities thrive when the people who live, work, and play there are invested in teaching kids about career opportunities in their hometown,” she says. “It’s really a win-win program both for the kids and our employees.”

Tessa Sandstrom, communications manager for the North Dakota Petroleum Council, says the program is a perfect fit for labour market needs in North Dakota, where crude output from the Bakken formation recently surpassed a million barrels a day.

“Most think an oil and gas job means being an engineer or a rig worker,” says Sandstrom, who points out that the industry also needs accountants, boilermakers, welders, geologists, and truck drivers, to name just a few. All of these occupations require post-secondary training, explains Sandstrom, and that means planning for the future.

And that’s best handled by sampling choices in the present, notes Kevin Mehrer, a senior district executive with the Boy Scouts in the Minot area.

“A guidance counsellor can talk about a career as much as they want, but when kids get their hands on something, it gives them a whole different perspective,” says Mehrer. “Exploring really gives kids a leg up on a career – a leg up on their future.”