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Employers Want Workers with Both Specific and General Managerial Skills

• More than half of employers have high-priority occupations that require at least five years of previous work experience.
• Workers who can think critically and creatively in the context of their work, solve work-based problems, and make sound decisions at work are highly sought, as are workers who understand the fundamentals of administration and management.

Colleges Do Not Appear to Have Curricular Structures Conducive to Occupational Education

• Most colleges in the region do not explicitly incorporate these into their oil and natural gas–related degree programs.
• Though most colleges in the tristate region report supporting students getting jobs in specific occupations within the oil and natural gas industry, few have stackable credential programs and less than half of courses aimed at future workers in the oil and natural gas industry use contextualized instruction.
• Stackable credential programs increasingly are receiving attention from workforce development policymakers and practitioners because they allow workers to obtain occupation-specific knowledge and skills in an efficient, flexible structure and format.
• Contextualized instruction uses occupational applications to teach basic academic skills (and vice versa) in such a way that the student learns both simultaneously. The majority of courses offered in oil and natural gas--related departments in the tristate region use contextualized instruction less than half of the time.

There Is a Disconnect Between Employers and Colleges

• The majority of employers do not communicate results of workforce planning with colleges, and few employers provide deep or continual instructional or curricular support to colleges.
• Both colleges and employers point to each other's unwillingness and lack of time as key barriers to partnering.