It’s often too late to spark an interest in an industrial career once a student reaches their junior or senior year in high school. By then, many of them have already made the decision to take another path.
To get ahead of the problem, many in the industrial space are proactively engaging with students of all ages as they seek to eliminate the disconnect by promoting careers in engineering, process technology and a variety of skilled labor positions.
ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge connects with students from grammar school “all the way up,” says Regina Davis, Baton Rouge refinery manager. Davis knows first-hand the importance of early exposure, as she was introduced to the world of engineering during a STEM Day in middle school.
“Left to my own devices, I wouldn’t have known of the possibilities,” she says. “Instead, I learned that I had to be a good student in high school to pursue that path.”
And in Lake Charles, the owner members of the Lake Area Industry Alliance, or LAIA, have established dozens of “Partners in Education” relationships with area schools from kindergarten through high school. The organization also sponsors an annual Chem Expo at the Lake Charles Event Center for some 2,000 seventh graders to generate interest in chemistry careers.
Maintaining those connections will be particularly important for Lake Charles in the coming years. The city recently led the nation in population and workforce decline, yet will need to fill thousands of jobs to support a burgeoning LNG industry.
“We’ve been treading water for a while now,” says Dan Groft, director of the H.C. Drew Center for Business and Economic Analysis at McNeese State University.
“Our labor force is down 11% compared to pre-COVID levels. That’s problematic since thousands of construction jobs and about 1,200 to 1,300 permanent jobs will need to be filled between all the various LNG facilities.”
LAIA Executive Director Jim Rock says his members are constantly searching for talent, all the way from laborers to CEOs.
“We’re talking about thousands of workers that are going to be needed,” he adds, “so either you’ve got to bring people in from somewhere else or train the people that are already here.”
The High School Connection
To strengthen its high school connections, ExxonMobil launched an eight-week paid internship program for high school students in 2021, during which they receive mentoring and perform hands-on work at the company’s Baton Rouge complex. The program has been well received—last year attracting more than 250 applications from 19 area public and charter high schools.
“It’s one of the best things we do,” Davis says. “When I talk to these young people and see their eyes light up about the possibilities and hear them say they want to go into engineering, or a trade based off this experience. … I feel like we’ve won and that ExxonMobil is doing its part.
“Even if they don’t end up working here, they’ll make their way into our industry, which helps the overall picture.”
There are other success stories: At Hahnville High School, interest in welding, carpentry and electrical classes has grown significantly in recent years; the school will soon complete an expansion of its Career and Technical Education facility to provide additional space.
That could become a common theme at high schools across the state, thanks to a new law that will allow students who are not college-bound to bypass taking the ACT altogether, beginning with the 2025-26 school year.
Alternatively, they’ll take a job-skills test or military fitness exam.
“Those students who don’t like to sit in a class all day and want to learn a trade, they’re hopping on it,” says Chris Henning, who runs the welding program at the high school and teaches welding at the Associated Builders and Contractors-Bayou Chapter’s training facility in St. Rose.
“I’ve always had full classes and there’s always been a wait list, but these last couple of years the wait list has grown and the number of high school students enrolling in the ABC program has increased astronomically.”
During his classes, Henning exposes students to the benefits of a career in industry—including salaries. “At 19 years old, it’s not unheard of to make $65,000 to $75,000 in a year with no college … just trade school,” he notes. “They can’t believe it.”
The Community College Connection
ExxonMobil also works closely with Baton Rouge Community College as the anchor sponsor of the North Baton Rouge Industrial Training Initiative.
The initiative provides basic craft training—predominantly but not exclusively to residents of north Baton Rouge—in electrical, instrumentation, millwright, pipefitting, process technology and welding.
ExxonMobil also works with more than 30 contractors to connect program graduates with prospective employers. “To date, there have been some 650 graduates of the initiative,” Davis says.
In Lake Charles, LAIA collaborates with SOWELA Technical Community College to ensure that the college’s programs are in sync with future workforce needs.
Robert Null, interim dean of SOWELA’s School of Industrial Technology, says the P-TECH program currently enrolls some 400 students, which he expects to increase to 450 in the fall. SOWELA’s Process Technology program helps familiarize and train students in petrochemical and LNG environments.
A 3,500-square-foot expansion of the Process Technology Center, made possible by a $1 million donation by Phillips 66, will soon double the facility’s lab space, increase hands-on learning opportunities and help SOWELA accommodate enrollment.
A Bigger Net
Ultimately, meeting future workforce needs will require that industrial owners cast a bigger net.
For its part, LAIA launched a Women in Industry program in 2024 to promote an industrial career path to high school-age girls. Organized by Stephanie Huck, government and community affairs lead at Cheniere Energy Inc., the program has been well received.
“These girls got to learn about careers from women that actually worked in industry,” Rock says. “It was a big hit.”
