By Anderson Colemon/south news editor
Having teamed up with The Women’s Center of Tarrant County to offer students an oil and gas production program, South Campus is trying to get jobs for students in that field.
The program with eight core classes began at TCC in 2011 focusing on beginning students wanting to study everything — oil production, gas production, electricity generation and transmission, liquid transportation and oil refinery.
“The oil and gas production certificate that I am offering is those eight core classes plus soft skills such as résumé writing, interview skills and financial planning,” special projects coordinator Joe Garcia said. “It is offered in a condensed format of 12 weeks, meeting eight hours a day and five days a week.”
The program also includes 400 hours of technical training plus 80 hours of soft skills. Since it began, four groups have completed the program, and the fifth group is currently in session.
“As of March 7, we had 45 of 73 students who are employed in the industry,” Garcia said. “Those numbers do change fairly frequently as The Women’s Center conducts job placement assistance for a full year after program completion.”
Instructors work with students when they complete the program to secure positions in the oil and gas industry.
“The students agree to work with The Women’s Center for one year of follow-ups,” he said.
Garcia said students who do not receive a job offer immediately following the program could attend weekly job search sessions at The Women’s Center until they do.
He said he couldn’t guarantee employment but would do “everything in his power” to find companies that are hiring.
“Once they are employed, they will have a quarterly review to ensure they are moving up within their company,” he said. “If at anytime in the year they become unemployed again, they can resume the weekly job search workshop.”
Academic advisor for workforce services Sharee Davis said it’s a wonderful program that gets students ready for the career field in the profession.
“It provides students good confidence with a great opportunity to get their foot in the door,” Davis said. “It’s nice to see the partnership between students and employers.”
Student Teresa Bonilla said she completed the program after three months.
“Once the program is complete, you will gain entry-level field work, and without it, it is impossible to get into the oil and gas industry,” she said.
Bonilla said she is gearing up her résumé and using it to get job interviews so she can enter the field.