Towards a digital skills framework for the energy sector: Evidence from the Australian LNG industry

Digital innovations have become increasingly widespread in almost every industry, and Australia’s energy sector has not been immune to this. It therefore follows that the coordination of energy exports like liquified natural gas (LNG) across government, industry, and community stakeholders will be largely dependent on the ability of these constituents to share digital information between and among each other in useful timeframes. However, the success of these integrated data systems will hinge on the ability of the energy sector’s workforce to use these technologies effectively, but it is increasingly coming into focus that the industry’s workers have very uneven levels of proficiency with digital technologies. By synthesizing earlier digital skills frameworks from other industries and adding qualitative evidence distilled from 42 interviews with a broad range of employees throughout a midsize Australian LNG company, this paper puts forward a digital skills framework for the energy sector which identifies five skill areas that will be required in 2030: (1) data analytics, (2) digital communication and collaboration, (3) digital security, (4) digital ethical and social responsibility, and (5) digital innovation. The required level of proficiency that will be required in 2030 for each of these skill areas is then assessed for different discipline groups throughout the industry. We conclude by explaining how the presented framework can be used as an assessment tool for identifying skill gaps throughout the energy sector, and exploring the policy-related implications of the findings.