IMarEST champions skills pivot to renewables
Aberdeen is gearing up to host Offshore Europe 2025 where IMarEST will be fronting a session on transforming skills.
Offshore Europe 2025 is a biennial event, this year running from 2–5 September at the P&J Live venue. The conference and exhibition will welcome more than 30,000 attendees and over 500 exhibiting companies under the theme: ‘Unlocking Europe’s Potential in Offshore Energies’.
As the global energy transition accelerates, this year's event will be particularly significant for Europe’s upstream industry. The Society of Petroleum Engineers’ (SPE) event features 12 strategic panels covering topics critical to the future of offshore energy, including oil and gas in the North Sea, global perspectives on the energy transition, growing the European offshore supply chain capacity, carbon capture and storage, financing the energy transition, offshore wind, hydrogen, decarbonisation and building tomorrow's global offshore energy workforce.
The last is of particular importance to IMarEST, which is hosting a session on an issue that resonates strongly with its membership. According to Professor Ibrahim Fahmy Abdelaty, a Fellow of IMarEST and a returning executive committee member for the second consecutive event, this is a crucial moment to address workforce transformation.
“This is a particularly important time to discuss these issues,” says Professor Abdelaty, referencing the ongoing review of the UK’s energy strategy.
Membership at heart of the session
The IMarEST-led session, ‘Diversifying Your Skill Set for a Secure Career’, will be a practical, interactive event aimed at helping attendees understand how skills developed in oil and gas can be successfully transferred into emerging offshore sectors.
IMarEST has established a panel consisting of a session chair, moderator, members and speakers who helped prepare a high-quality session, which is part of the Offshore Europe Talent Investment and Diversity Event (TIDE) programme.
It will explore how to transition into offshore renewables, marine logistics, CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and storage), hydrogen, and offshore operations, the value of continuous professional development (CPD) in a changing energy landscape, how to leverage digital tools to support upskilling and workforce retention, and opportunities for cross-sector collaboration and innovation, spanning port authorities, shipping companies and LNG terminal operators for a secure career future.
The panel will also talk about the role of mentorship, which will be timely given the recent launch of IMarEST’s new Member-to-Member (M2M) mentoring platform.
The session will be moderated by Professor Abdelaty, who is a Professor of Subsea and Pipeline Engineering and Management at the University of Strathclyde.
“This aims to be a practical session with industry thought leaders to assess attendees’ skill sets and what options this gives them to secure a career in the offshore energy industry,” he says.
“It’s an honour to serve on the executive committee of Offshore Europe for the second time. The organising teams from SPE and RX (joint organisers) have worked tirelessly to prepare a high-quality programme for over 30,000 attendees. It’s a real privilege to contribute.”
IMarEST’s involvement comes as the event expands its skills and education programme to run across all four days, with around 300 school pupils, alongside students and individuals seeking to upskill, change careers or return to the workplace getting involved.
An expanded Future Talent Hub will feature a variety of interactive activities designed to immerse students in hands-on experiences and inspire future careers in the offshore energy sector, which faces a skills shortfall as the existing workforce nears retirement.
Book your free ticket to attend Offshore Europe 2025.
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Image: substation and wind farm in the North Sea. Credit: Shutterstock.
Inline image: Professor Ibrahim Fahmy Abdelaty. Credit: Self.
