Geoscientists in short supply

The red flags have been up for years: there are simply not enough students entering the earth sciences to sustain the mining and petroleum sector.

In 2001, the Canadian Geoscience Council (CGC) sent a comprehensive survey to 12,000 geologists across the country. From the 3,000 responses, says CGC chair Alan Morgan, the size of the problem became obvious.

“There was going to be a real crunch,” he says. “Within 15 years of 2001 — that is, by 2016 — 60% of all earth scientists in the country would be over the age of 65.”

He points out that it takes at least five years, and usually eight to nine years, for geoscientists to complete their education, and time is running out. “Unless we do something in the next two or three years and turn things around, we’re really going to be seeing a shortfall cropping up seven or eight years from now,” he says.

The CGC’s findings are worryingly substantiated in a report released to the mining industry this summer. It warned of an impending human resources crisis in the industry that will be created by the retirement of 40% of current employees by 2015.

The Mining Industry Training and Adjustment Council (MITAC) report said that with the combination of retirements and industry growth, as many as 81,000 people will be needed to fill positions during the next 10 years. As it stands now, only about 14% of them will come from post-secondary institutions. The remainder will have to be recruited from immigration, aboriginal communities and other industries. (Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) first vice-president Pat Dillon chaired the MITAC steering committee and PDAC director Karen Sutherland represented the PDAC.)

Morgan says this problem is not only Canadian; it exists in Europe and the United States as well.

A number of factors are exacerbating this situation, he adds. For example, within academia, geology and earth science departments have been closed down or combined with other areas.

“Generally speaking, Europe and the whole of the North American continent have been reducing, fairly substantially, the numbers of potential geologists who could be going through the system,” he says.

In addition, junior and high school boards have been relegating the earth sciences to the back burner as biology, chemistry and physics have been given prominence. This situation has been worsened by earth science being taught by people who have little or no knowledge of the areas, and guidance counsellors who know nothing about careers in the field and do not promote them.

The CGC is trying to find out more about the state of earth science teaching across the country, and is sending questionnaires out to teachers, junior and high schools and universities seeking information. Eventually, it hopes to combine efforts with other associations, such as the PDAC, to produce an overview of the status of earth science education in Canada.

Morgan says the report would cover everything from junior high school and university, as well as the needs of industry.

Meanwhile, the mining industry has adopted a number of tactics to encourage young people to consider a career in geoscience. It has developed curriculum-based programs, both at the elementary and high school levels, and set aside funds to support post-secondary students in their studies. It also encourages these students to join professional organizations, giving them an opportunity to network with professionals in their chosen field.

— The preceding is an excerpt from In Brief, a quarterly publication of the Toronto-based Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.