With roustabout training, students try to tough it out to work in shale industry

By CAITLIN FITCH

TheNewsOutlet.org

STEUBENVILLE

Nick Kemp is a security guard looking for a pay raise and ticket out of Martins Ferry.

Mark Waugh is a West Virginia farmer who wants to make good money and learn about something more than raising animals.

Both are students in the Shale Gas Training Program at Eastern Gateway Community College on the Jefferson County campus in Steubenville — one of several new programs operating throughout the region that seek to train people to work in the expanding oil and natural-gas industry.

Kemp and Waugh hope to be roustabouts at the end of the three-week course.

From cleaning up to moving equipment, roustabouts do nearly every job on oil and natural-gas rigs.

There’s need for a lot of them. The drilling of a single well requires about 400 people, and many of these workers don’t need degrees beyond high school. In fact, 47 percent of a well’s work force consists of jobs that do not require a four-year degree.

The Shale Gas Training Program, a new venture between Eastern Gateway and Shale Net of the U.S. Department of Labor, has developed a recruitment, training, placement and retention program to provide the gas industry with a ready and well-trained local work force for in-demand occupations.

It is currently in its second round of classes, and 18 already have graduated. It costs $2,400 to attend, but those costs are paid for if the students are eligible for Workforce Investment Act funding and pass the drug screening and background check.

Michael Lorms, Shale Gas Training Program special-projects coordinator, said more than 500 people have expressed interest in the training course but that each class can accommodate only 18.

He said the classes are filled with people age 18 to 55 from nearby areas.

“The background of the students is basically from soup to nuts. They have diverse and all-encompassing backgrounds,” Lorms said. “In this area, they have the mill mentality where the mill was here and it provided a good job with little education.”

Lorms said he has plans to take the training program into area high schools.

Kemp, a 25-year-old security guard for Ohio Valley Medical Center in Martins Ferry, who is taking a three-week vacation from his job to take the roustabout training class, said he’s never had it easy and welcomes the opportunity for a new career. He said he doesn’t mind using all of his vacation because it may lead to a better life.

“I’m from a typical blue-collar family,” Kemp said. “I can’t think of one person in my family that doesn’t have to get his hands dirty.”

Kemp said he hopes to earn more money and have the opportunity to travel.

“I work as a security guard now, and that’s a nice job, but I want something more,” he said. “I’d like to go to other parts of the world and get paid to do it.”

Lorms said many of the students in the first class have been successful in getting jobs in the industry.

“Our placement rate is around 88 percent,” Lorms said.

Andrea Bell, director of work force and community outreach, said that 80 percent of roustabouts wind up keeping their jobs for “a long time.”

Lorms said the classes are demanding and require dedication. He said attendance at all classes is mandatory and that students cannot miss one day without being expelled from the program.

“I think it’s pretty grueling. We start at 7:30 a.m., and we end at around 5 p.m.,” Lorms said. “In three weeks, we cover so much material it has been compared to a full course of study.”

During the three weeks, students work closely with four instructors covering the basics of heavy-equipment operation, CPR and first aid, defensive driving, CDL and resume writing.

Bell said the students walk away with a pretty good knowledge of what positions require.

“You know, they work 14 days, 12 hours a day in all kinds of weather without a day off,” Bell said. “If they understand what the job requires, then they probably will do very well.”

Waugh agrees. He’s not a fan of sitting in class all day but is excited for his career after classes.

“It’s really informative, there is a lot of information. It’s a lot of sitting and going over notes,” Waugh said. “Some of the stuff I thought I knew from the news turns out I didn’t know.”

Waugh grew up on a farm and is used to hard work but isn’t quite prepared for what they’re teaching in class.

“I’ve never worked a 12-hour day with no breaks, but I have worked outside before, so hopefully that will give me a leg up,” he said.

His goals are to work his way up in whatever company hires him.

“I want to build a career, I’m starting out young. I’m only 19, so I’m just looking to make a living and have a future with a company that’s going to be around for a while,” he said.

But not everyone can hope to get a job in the natural-gas industry. Bell said EGCC has strict requirements to get accepted into the program. Potential students must have a GED or diploma and pass a background check and a drug test. And they must be able to lift 80 pounds continuously.

“It’s not something that we in our area are used to as far as working conditions,” she said.

And even if they pass all the preliminary tests, EGCC still doesn’t promise a job.

“A lot of people call here wanting us to get them a job, and I wish we could, but that’s not the way it works,” she said. “It’s up to them to contact employers and do the work.”

Lorms said he has every reason to believe after completion that everyone will be successful.

“It’s not as if they can walk out their front door and pick up a job with a service company that may be drilling in their backyard because they don’t have the skills yet, but they will,” he said.