SYNOPSIS

Drawing on Dato’ Ir Lim Chow Hock’s last two Presidential addresses to IEM members for inspiration, this presentation considers the challenges of current low oil prices and how these impact on Malaysia’s ambition for its National Economic Transformation Programme. Engineers are a fundamental part of Malaysia’s plans for transforming the economy and energy is a crucial part of the equation, both as an industry that supports the economy and the necessary infrastructure that will support the achievement of that ambition. How will long-term low oil prices affect the rate of innovation for renewables? How urgent is the low carbon future? And how can engineers contribute to these likely changes? The role of professional bodies like IEM and the Energy Institute provide a valuable link between universities, employers and the engineers themselves in contributing to the success of transformational projects. Engineers must extend their skills like never before and the energy question is the most testing area of those skills if the planet is to thrive.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Sarah Beacock BSc(Hons) FEI ACIS
Sarah is Skills and Capability Director at the Energy Institute and is responsible for the EI’s membership, education, training, branches and international activities. She has a degree in Environmental Science, a Certificate in the Assessment and Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning and is a Chartered Secretary.

Sarah has over 30 years’ experience of operating assessment and accreditation schemes, mainly within examination bodies, professional institutions, universities and the commercial and financial services sectors. She began her working life with the RSA Examinations Board gaining valuable experience of competence based assessment schemes, then joined the Chartered Insurance Institute undertaking a variety of roles around assessment and vocational education. She spent four years engaged in a range of educational consultancy work for financial and HE institutions together with technical editorial work in financial and management subjects. Sarah joined the former Institute of Energy in 2002 and on its merger with the Institute of Petroleum became Professional Affairs Director where she sees her key role as being to deliver skilled energy professionals to the energy industry. In her more recent role she has taken on coordination of the EI’s IT needs and also leads on the development of staff capability. The range of services and international scope of the EI has grown rapidly in the last three years and now include eight overseas branches of which Malaysia is one of four that has a permanent staff. Sarah has represented the BSI’s Energy management standards committee on the European working group as UK expert on energy managers. She also sat on the World Energy Council’s Human Resources Availability committee. Most recently she was a member of the Expert Panel that implemented the EU Directive on energy efficiency within the UK under the authority of the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change. She regularly contributes articles and presentations on the topic of skills in energy.