Although the Permian Basin is known worldwide for oil and gas, students in Ector County ISD didn’t have a career pathway for the industry until last year.
Tried as a pilot for one semester, the oil and gas pathway drew 20 students. Now in its first full year, there are about 60 students signed up.
Justin Young and Ofrael Galindo are both oil and gas and welding instructors. Before going into teaching, Young welded in the oilfield and built downhole fishing tools, which are “special mechanical devices used to aid the recovery of equipment lost downhole,” the Energy Glossary website said.
He was in the field for about 10 years.
“There’s a strong interest, for sure. A lot of kids are interested in seeing where their livelihood comes from,” Young said.
“They’re learning a lot. They’re learning that it’s not just go down there, find it and pull it out. It’s a lot bigger process that they’re learning, and they’re starting to see how geology connects to it and how the whole industry works together. It’s definitely a learning experience for them,” he added.
Young, a Permian High School graduate, loves his new vocation.
“I love seeing kids interested and helping kids find a career path that’s going to help them grow a family someday,” he added.
On a recent Tuesday, they had Lacee Anderson, a staff environmental professional with Devon Energy, talk to the students and do an activity with them. Anderson said Devon has operations from Wink into Roswell, N.M. They don’t have any in the Odessa-Midland area, but they used to.
The class had sophomores through seniors in it. Many had family who work in the industry and are interested in it themselves.
Anderson gave students a bit of an overview of Devon’s business and career options with the company. She did an activity with them where they wrote down where they would want to go on a dream vacation on Devon’s dime, asked them how they were going to get there, what they were going to take and what they would do when they got there.
The kicker was that without oil and gas, Anderson said, you wouldn’t be able to get to your destination or take many of the necessities with you. You also wouldn’t have soap, clothes, tires, or upholstery, for example.
Nancy Vargas, a 15-year-old junior at Odessa High School, said she was possibly interested in going into the oilfield when she gets older. She’s considering going into safety or truck driving.
“It’s pretty interesting. Right now, we’re working on installing motors, and I’ve been learning a lot,” Vargas said.
“Since I live in the Permian Basin, I’m interested in learning what is going on around the area,” she added.
Cameron Clark, a 17-year-old senior at Permian High School, said his father has worked in the oilfield since he got out of high school.
“I’ve kind of followed him in that path because I worked there the past two summers with him at RK in a parts warehouse and distribution,” Clark said.
He’d like to go into supply chain management, be a boss, but still do what he enjoys.
Clark said the course is very informative.
“I think it provides a lot of information for people wanting to get into it, and expand their knowledge on oil, how drilling works and how everything runs,” Clark said.
Finding out more about drilling has been surprising.
“Not so much the rig, but how the underground part works; all the preparation they have to do, and if something happens, they just got to completely restart,” Clark said.
Kyrsten Nall, director of Career and Technical Education, said this is the first full year of offering oil and gas.
“It’ll be a full three-year program, like all of our other programs are,” Nall said. “We’ll add courses each year for the kids to continue so that they’ll be able to take it their 10th, 11th and 12th grade years.”
