Reflections On Reservoir Engineering Continuing Education
Authors: Crafton J.W. , Martinelli J.W. , Pelto C.R. 
Published: March 2010

The development of petroleum engineering employee education programs must be tailored to the needs and background of each person, within the requirements imposed by corporate philosophy. The employee and corporate motivation for such a program is emphasized.

The initiation of new educational programs or re-orientation of existing curricula has been investigated, drawing on the experiences of other company education programs, the various motivational determinants, support available from professional societies and universities, and new teaching methods such as management games, program· med learning courses, etc.

The particular problems and needs of three personnel categories are given consideration. These categories are recent graduates in fields other than petroleum engineering, practicing engineers requiring technical updating and refreshing in their fields of interest, and those who are research-oriented or who desire thorough coverage of specialized technical areas.

INTRODUCTION

FROM MANY INDICATIONS, the initial fascination with continuing education is beginning to wear off. Industry is preparing for the long-term job of improving existing education programs, and implementing new ones, As well, we have begun to recognize that this aspect of employee relations is politically delicate and highly complex.

Many universities and petroleum consultants are finding industry's continuing education problem a lucrative one to attack. Many companies, likewise, find using outside educational sources expedient to evade the problems of horizontally crossing lines of authority, of having to determine each employee's needs or of justifying in-house education on a dollar-and-cents basis. The problems of employee morale and motivation, which are directly related to an employee's ability and desire to work, are simplified this way.

Perhaps it is possible to learn more about the factors we have mentioned by studying the results of some company and SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers, AIME) educational programs, and the psychological factors pertinent to the engineer. Even though this is a potentially delicate subject, it seems important that priorities and values be established among the various types of educational processes available. An integrated educational program and the logic behind its implementation should result from this analysis.

A SURVEY OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The literature concerning the many programs which have been attempted and failed is rather scarce. However, we can learn from the existing programs, by comparing the techniques used.

Several SPE local sections have presented various continuing petroleum engineering education courses(6). It seems that the actual cost in money, time and travel was of no great concern to students who are sufficiently interested. The courses were strongly dependent on maintaining participant interest for their continuing success. This interest is affected by the size of the market of engineers who are sufficiently self-motivated to want to improve themselves. Further, because the course is not usually actively supported by the companies, the loss of free time requires even more motivation.

Three related national programs of the SPE are the Distinguished Lecturer Series, a reservoir engineering videotape lecture series and the recently announced traveling lecture series. These continuing education programs are unusual in two important ways.