b'Education matters Howdo you get the best talent, trainfrom was great, but I also had to get busyevolution because of the risks involved it and retain it? If they have a broaderreading and picking up the knowledgein a revolution - universities need to have Bachelors degree focus, whats availableneeded to do the job. con\x1ddence in student uptake before to top up their knowledge and skillslaunching a completely new degree for the job? We know were going toCarbon capture and storage isprogramme. What I see, and again Im need gas for decades for an orderlyone of the stepping stones intosorry, its a very University of Adelaide-and equitable energy transition, andthe energy transition centric perspective, is that they are I think theres a perception out thereincrementally adding new subjects and that its all old, yesterdays industry,Another part of recruitment is being ancourses with options to study carbon its a dinosaur so forget it. However,employer of choicewhile governmentcapture and storage and hydrogen industry demographics mean that a lotdoesnt pay as well as industry, it o\x1eersstorage, so interested students can build of us will be retiring in the next \x1dve to\x1cexible work conditions and a broaderon the basics. I think carbon capture and ten years (the great crew change) andscope of work. Youre not necessarilystorage is one of the stepping stones into theres less and less young engineers,going to work on one gas \x1deld orthe energy transition.geologists and geophysicists to replacemine - you may need to look at the usso it could be there will actuallyThe Department has provided seed geology of Australia or South Australiafunding for the University of Adelaides be lots of jobs for decades to come! Infor a basin analysis or regional project. addition, the petroleum industry hassuccessful and signi\x1dcant ARC grant Of course COVID-19 has changedapplications for carbon capture and essential knowledge and experience forwork, and companies are a lot more carbon capture and storage, hydrogenstorage and hydrogen storage research \x1cexible. So being an employer ofand research infrastructure. So theres generation and storage for the energychoice becomes important. Does the transition. So, there are plenty ofnow a pathway into energy transition organisation have the culture and valuesresearch but its not a radical shift, its an opportunities still to come, and itsa graduate aspires to? Will my work important to make sure that students areevolution utilising the basics of petroleum make a positive di\x1eerence for Southgeoscience and engineering. I think aware of that. Australians? Does the organisation o\x1eer the universities that are building this MP: Thank you for sharing your vision, andcontinuous learning, development andincrementally are probably going to be it is great to know that there are plentytraining, \x1cexible work? What aboutquite successful in attracting students and of opportunities for young specialists inworking from homeit can actuallysustaining them through post-grad student Adelaide. It is also very exciting to hearbe a better environment than an openprojects and into employment as well.that Adelaide University is o\x1eering aplan o\x1bce for geos and engineers that space geology course. The next questionare trying to write reports or thinkingWe are passionate about data. is, what has changed in the recruitmentdeeply on concepts and models. WhatIt sounds very nerdish, but a lot process in the last couple of decades? about employee wellbeing, equity andof us in the Department are data diversity? Theyll all part of the mix that EA: For a government agency,any organisation can o\x1eer. wonks. We just love data.recruitment processes are pretty set, but recruitment targets have changed sinceThe \x1cip side is seeing people leavingYou cant beat the basics, thinking about I was employed with a more generalpetroleum geoscience to apply theirthe courses that we didstructural Honours degree in 1985. I needed totransferable skills in mining, renewablegeology, basin analysis, petroleum plays, get up the learning curve on oil and gasenergy, data analytics and, in Southreservoirs, sandstone, sedimentology, exploration and petrophysics and did aAustralia, the space industry. These\x1cuid \x1cow, and reservoir engineering - we lot of reading and went to Core Lab andsectors are now competing for oil patchdid them with a view to getting oil and Schlumberger courses, the NCPGG wasnttalent. However, I think oil and gasgas out of the ground. But you apply established then. The NCPGG, ASP andcompanies and their highly skilled sta\x1ethem to sequestering CO 2and maybe one ASPER have been providing employersare pivotal in achieving net zero. I thinkday storing hydrogen. Whats happening with work-ready petroleum geoscienceits worth reminding students that thenow, to put it extremely simply, is and engineering students since the lateold-fashioned oil patch has the skills, thebecoming about putting gases in the 1980s, many of whom have industrytechnologies and the highly educatedground rather than taking them out.placements. As I discussed previously,sta\x1e to conceptualise and deliver net zero thats changing so the situation may endprogrammes like carbon capture andMP: I am delighted to know that it will up similar to my recruitment in 1985 storage, blue hydrogen, green hydrogen,not be a revolution. From your point of new more generalist graduate employeesand natural hydrogen exploration. Theview, what role does digitalisation play may need training in specialisedpetroleum sector has the hard-earntin the clean energy transition? What kind exploration, mining and petroleum skills. knowledge to drive an orderly, fair andof education is required to guarantee equitable energy transition. e\x1bcient digitalisation of the energy sector?Graduates from courses that o\x1eer guided learning, working on real-worldMP: Should we expect evolution orEA: One of the critical roles of the data and case studies, with internshipsrevolution in tertiary education toDepartment, since it was formed, was an exposure to industry certainly haveensure a smooth and e\x1bcient transitionto collect and archive data generated an advantage. Whereas back in my dayto clean energy? by explorers, universities and our own you could graduate with a degree ingeoscientists. And back in the early geology but you may not have pickedEA: There could be a bit of bothdays, that data was long sepia seismic up much knowledge about working inevolution and revolution, but, talkingsections, paper well completion reports, industry. Joining an organisation withto my university colleagues and friends,paper seismic survey reports, paper and experienced geos around you to learntheyre saying its more likely to be ansepia well logs. We put a lot of e\x1eort into 25 PREVIEW JUNE 2023'