PETEX Creates New Online Course for The Pipeliners Association of Houston and Pipeliners Young Professionals Members
When there is a need, we answer.
The Pipeliners Young Professionals (PYP) of Houston identified the need for on-demand quality and efficient online learning to support their members' professional development needs.
In conversation with the Pipeliners Association of Houston (PAH), important discussions ensued as to how they could produce valuable, knowledge-rich, and quality online learning while making it easily accessible to their members. Fortunately, many PAH and PYP members had already successfully taken one or more of the PETEX (University of Texas at Austin’s Petroleum Extension) Pipeline Technology courses at their Houston Training Center. Seeing the value in connecting PYP/PAH needs with education and workforce training expertise, PYP leadership reached out to PETEX to see if there was a way that the traditional instructor-led courses could be converted to high-quality, online, self-paced programs. With PETEX’s history, dense training expertise, and robust e-learning infrastructure, it was deemed that PETEX was the perfect candidate to help execute their members' online learning needs.
Understanding the immense size of this project and how much dedication it would require, we asked Brandy Roberts, past president of PAH, to explain why PYP took the initiative to start this project. Brandy responded, “We decided to take the initiative after facing the great crew change in which a huge influx of young professionals is flooding our industry in order to replace the senior pipeliners that are retiring. The retiring baby boomers represent a large portion of our industry and hold most of our industry’s knowledge. We knew we needed to facilitate a proactive approach in supporting these young pipeliners to ensure they get trained, and offer them some of the tools they may need, ensuring a successful and safe future together.”
In late 2019, the PETEX Development and IT teams quickly jumped into action in creating an online version of the first of three online courses (Pipeline Technology—Design, Pipeline Technology—Operations, and Pipeline Technology—Maintenance) to Pipeliners Association of Houston members. Through rigorous development and refining, PETEX officially handed over the Pipeline Technology—Design course with the same classroom instructors, first-rate animations, video, and audio, to the Pipeliners Association of Houston on July 1st, 2020. If PYP and PAH see value in this new resource for their members, PETEX plans to support the Pipeliners Association of Houston with the second and third installments of the series in the near future. Dr. Eric Roe, Executive Director of PETEX and Assistant Dean for Continuing Engineering Education at the Cockrell School of Engineering sees this as a collaboration emblematic of public/private partnership in service to industry and individuals. As he puts it, “there is no better way to ensure industry success than a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. Industry associations have always looked for ways to make sure their members and member companies have the tools to succeed. Connecting the expertise of PETEX and UT Austin with a built-in audience for upskilling and reskilling PAH and PYP provide their members with the tools they need to succeed on the job and advance their careers.”
Throughout this project, ensuring these courses would be valuable to their members was a top priority for both PYP/PAH and PETEX. We asked both Gary Daileda, current President of PAH, and Brandy Roberts, what value they thought this project would bring to their members. Gary stated, “I was fortunate as a young professional in the pipeline industry way back in 1982 to have been able to attend several PETEX courses at their North Houston learning center. These courses were of great benefit to me and I still treasure the knowledge that I gained in this training as a young pipeline professional. I am sure that our members will find this new online learning that we have developed in partnership with PETEX will benefit them as much as it benefitted my career when I was just getting started, and also as a good refresher course for some of our more seasoned pipeline professionals.” In response to the same question, Brandy further responded, “We see tons of value just by being able to partner with PETEX, because it will draw the attention of the younger professionals to want to join our association, which in turn will likely secure our organization's future. The true value will come from our members who complete the course, as it will advance their knowledge, and that will strengthen the future of our industry as a whole. Supporting our future generations by taking an active role in their education and training is its own priceless reward.”
We are proud to collaborate with PAH/PYP and provide its members with a valuable online learning solution that will continue to advance and educate both young and seasoned pipeliners. We are committed to providing the industry with reliable and quality education through instructor-led training, custom courses, online learning, publications, and outreach. If you or your company is in search of an education or workforce training solution, please contact us to explore how we can create a solution for you. If you are interested in becoming a member of The Pipeliners Association of Houston or Pipeliners Young Professionals of Houston, please use the following link for more information: https://www.houstonpipeliners.net/
