GLOBAL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
TOP: The Center for Local Business De-
velopment in Georgetown, Guyana, has
played a critical role in helping local
companies enhance their knowledge
around basic functions of the oil and
gas industry. Susan Scott (left), Socio-
economic Manager for ExxonMobil, and
Natasha Gaskin-Peters (right), Center
Directo r, spoke at the 2022 SPE ATCE in
Houston about the various programs
that have been rolled out around things
like HSSE, standard payment systems
and the digital procurement proces s.

BOTTOM: In 2018, the center began of-
fering a program to help Guyanese
companies enhance their HSSE man-
agement system s. Companies were
offered one-on-one sessions to help
them review or even write related doc-
ument s, like HSSE manual s.

Once the center got off the ground, it then
began providing tailored, individual sup-
port to various Guyanese suppliers in the
form of one-on-one mentoring. The bulk
of these efforts centered on training on
international standards and compliance.

For example, the center’s first mentoring
project involved working with a Guyanese
management consultancy to help it obtain
certification in ISO 9001, a safety manage-
ment system standard. Overall, the center
has mentored 26 companies in ISO 9001
certification, including companies focused
on fabrication and machining, rigging and
slinging, logistics and training .

To help Guyanese companies enhance
their HSSE management systems, the cen-
ter also developed a program in 2018 that
38 offered one-on-one sessions to help them
review related documents. If the company
did not have existing documents to review,
the center would provide information on
how to write HSSE manuals, including
how to develop standard operating pro-
cedures, emergency preparedness policy
and environmental policy. This program
also included short courses on topics such
as job safety analysis, workplace assess-
ment and hazard recognition, and incident
management. As of 2021, more than 370
Guyanese companies have participated in
the program.

The center also continues to work with
Guyanese companies to develop HSSE-
focused workforce training programs.

While the training could be customized
according to company needs, they typi-
cally focus on five key areas of safety man-
agement: loss prevention, working in con-
fined spaces, working at height, excavation
and working near moving equipment.

In early 2022, the center kicked off its
Project Management Mentorship program.

ExxonMobil had identified a gap among
Guyanese companies in their knowledge
of how to manage multiple projects and
deliverables simultaneously, effectively
and in a timely manner.

The center also has ongoing dialogue
with Guyanese policymakers, regulators
and other key stakeholders to ensure that
regulations are put in place to help bolster
the local supplier industry. This is critical
for local businesses, many of whom are too
small to directly engage with policymak-
ers and to have a voice in important regu-
latory discussions, Ms Gaskin-Peters said.

“The businesses have been very keen
to win opportunities, but they don’t know
how to navigate the industry and engage
with the key stakeholders,” she said. “We
engage governments and all the business
associations, and that’s key in getting that
buy-in into the local community.” DC
For more information, please refer to SPE
210444, “The Importance of Early Investments in
Local Content: Lessons Learned from Guyana’s
Enterprise Development Centre Five Years In.”
M A R C H/A P R I L 2023 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R