Knowledge Management Enhances Technical Training Program

Abstract

Pillars of the Industry - How knowledge management enhances technical training programs. World demand for oil is at an all-time high, and the oil industry is riding one of its busiest cycles in history. This creates a wonderful market in which current college graduates and young professionals can get involved. Positions are open across the industry for almost any type of technical degree. While this is great for the young professionals of the world, it creates many challenges for the industry. Issues arise regarding how to train and mentor these new employees as they progress into productive positions as quickly as possible. If it isn't enough to provide training on oilfield practices and technology; we are also facing what many in the industry are referring to as "the great crew change." In the next 5–10 years, a large majority of employees who hired on in the boom of the 1970s and early 1980s will be retiring. These employees are commonly referred to as the "knowledge base" for the industry. This means that in addition to training young professionals on general oilfield material, we must also pass along or otherwise retain as much of this knowledge as possible. Halliburton has taken a somewhat blended approach to this problem involving a tailored Technical Training Program (TTP) and what we refer to as Knowledge Management (KM) communities for collaborating on and cataloging solutions to issues. This article will address each one of these separately to point out their unique benefits, but also explain how they complement each other to create a complete training and development environment. First look at the TTP.

Implementing Knowledge-Management Systems: Collaboration Tools Create Efficient and Synergistic Operations Between Oil-Service and Energy Companies

“…In the service company currently, each product service line or a major functional unit has a portal with its own community of end users. KMS systems have also been used to enhance the technical training programs within the company (Conway et al 2006).…”