about NExT

open quote Developing world-class competency for tomorrow's E&P challenges close quote

The industry and academic partnership that is Network of Excellence in Training (NExT*) is delivering tailored training programs around the globe. In over 50 countries the NExT team is creating training and development programs to match the specific requirements of our customers. Through our global presence and experience in most oil and gas fields we can fill these programs with relevant examples and case studies that make each NExT course unique, specific and practical. We firmly believe that the retention of knowledge is maximized when theory is immediately applied to business relevant projects - learning by doing.

Core to the quality and superior standards that NExT offer is the technical team whose role it is to ensure only the best instructors, course material and case studies are combined to meet the exact requirements of our customers. Through our industry and university partners, together with frequent peer review with our customers we ensure emerging technologies are central to the content of our programs. Our faculty of over 250 instructors come from a wide variety of technical and regional experience that allow NExT to bring world class expertise to the training environment.

Partners

Schlumberger

Founded in 1927, Schlumberger is the world's leading oilfield services company and supplies technology, project management, and information solutions that optimize performance in the oil and gas industries. The company employs more than 87,000 people of more than 140 nationalities working in approximately 80 countries. In 2008, Schlumberger revenue was US$27.16 Billion.
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Heriot-Watt University

Heriot-Watt University (HWU), Edinburgh, is one of the top UK universities for research-based technology and is world-renowned in distance-learning technology. The Institute of Petroleum Engineering at HWU has a five-star research rating in the UK, and international standing in both research and teaching.
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Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University (TAMU) is among the nation's leaders in both the size and the quality of its engineering research and education programs. The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering houses the Crisman Institute for Reservoir Management, which conducts research projects in reservoir description and dynamics; unconventional resources; well construction and production; and energy, environment, and transportation innovation.
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The University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a research university that grants doctorates. The university ranks in the top five in the USA, among all comprehensive public universities, for the number of National Merit Scholars enrolled per capita and in the graduation of Rhodes Scholars. OU's Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering has consistently been ranked among the top-five petroleum engineering schools in the USA by U.S. News & World Report.
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Board Members

Stephen A. Holditch | Department Head, The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University

The upstream petroleum industry is changing. New technologies are driving the business, and the workforce is getting older. Over the next few years, many young professionals will enter the business and many current professionals will be promoted to manage technology projects. There has never been more need for competency assessment and targeted training for exploration and production professionals. NExT has the tools and the personnel to lead the way in the fields of competency assessment and targeted training.

Chris Hopkins | President, Schlumberger Data and Consulting Services

With the aging population of the petrotechnical community and the huge growth trend in the industry, there is a significant shortage in skilled personnel. NExT offers a unique combination of competency management processes and academic-level courses that accelerates the growth of qualified expertise critical to the future of the industry.

John Ford | Professor and Director of Learning and Teaching, Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University

Almost every company that we deal with tells us that it is facing technical and managerial competency gaps throughout its organization. This, for me, is a positive sign that we are as dynamic an industry as we have ever been and that we are still pushing our technology and expertise to its limits. We at Heriot-Watt believe that the solution to the competency gap is not simply to provide a series of open short courses designed around our particular areas of expertise. We believe that the approach to the problem has to be as imaginative and professional as the approach to the other problems that the industry faces. NExT has the personnel and the expertise to assist wherever possible in developing techniques for conducting a systematic assessment of a company's competency gaps and then identifying and implementing training solutions tailored to its needs.

Antoine Rostand | Managing Director, Schlumberger Business Consulting

Global supply and demand for petro-technical experts are close, but there are large imbalances at regional level. Relying on mid-career hires will not solve the problem, and every oil, gas, and service company needs to apply an integrated global view of their pool of experts. This resource constraint, together with the pace of technological change in the industry, demands more effective competency-based development programs.

Chandra S. Rai | Interim Director and Mewbourne Chair Professor, Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, The University of Oklahoma

NExT is an excellent resource for building technical competencies of E&P employees. OU is excited to be a part of NExT.

Pierre Bismuth | Senior Adviser, Human Resources, Schlumberger Ltd

The ultimate goal of NExT is to enhance the performance of the technical community by reducing the gap between actual competencies and state-of-the-art technologies.

Directors of Curriculum

The NExT Directors of Curriculum (DOC) are responsible for maintaining the superior standards of our course materials and ensuring the high-quality delivery of our training solutions worldwide. With their respective peer review boards, the DOCs continuously evaluate the technical content of our courses to ensure that we are delivering the latest technology to our clients. The DOCs are responsible for ensuring that our virtual faculty members are not only leaders from a technical perspective, but are also competent teachers. Through the NExT comprehensive course and instructor evaluation system, a continuous quality assurance process is in place that enables us to react immediately to any quality assurance issue. All of our DOCs routinely teach in NExT programs and direct competency assessment projects.