MIDLAND, Texas — The University of Texas Permian Basin is looking to pave the way towards using data to fill workforce gaps in the Permian Basin region.
On Apr. 6, UTPB President Dr. Sandra Woodley met with the Midland Development Corporation to give a presentation on how the institution plans on identifying key job positions that need to be filled within the 22 counties.
"The project would allow us to create this analytical model and analytical dashboards to understand what the workforce gaps are over the next 20 years and to be able to map those workforce gaps with what is in the pipeline at all educational institutions, including K-12," said Dr. Woodley. "This allows us to get together and create this opportunity to very specifically strategic plan how to fill the workforce gaps over a period of time and to create customized dashboards for all of the decision makers on that as we develop those strategic plans and implement them."
Dr. Woodley shared recent economic reports show that in the next 20 years, the Permian Basin will need to fill nearly 200,000 jobs, including 38,000 positions that require bachelor’s degrees.
During the presentation, Josh Scheighberg, the System Engineer with SAS Analytics shared there are more jobs than people in the region that are needed to fill positions such as heavy truck drivers, heavy tractor trailer drivers and and several different positions including supervisors, maintenance repair, and registered nurses. The data provided by the company keeps track of all of Texas, but according to Dr. Woodley, it would be used to provide insight in the Permian Basin.
"What we're really proposing to do here is to work together with SAS Analytics and work with both MDC and Odessa Development Corporation and Permian Strategic Partnership on this project that will allow us not only to answer these questions, but to develop very specific strategic plans for billing the workforce gaps, and most importantly, tracking progress on where we are," said Dr. Woodley.
According to the proposal for funding, the two-year contract with UTPB is requesting for $398,279 the first year, and $420,781 the following year from both the MDC and ODC.
Dr. Woodley shared that her goal is to understand what gaps are in the Baccalaureate degree offerings that may require the university to invest in through things such a recruiting, marketing campaigns, philanthropy that may generate more talents and more.
"Our goal, of course, is to continue this model over time and to continue to expand and to use this model and the data in this model that the university can then provide the service both for economic development organizations, industry leaders, educational leaders," said Dr. Woodley.
According to Dr. Woodley, the plan is to get started on the model this summer and have the prototype up and running this year if and when approvals for funding are finalized.