MDPI has capacity to train more people in oil and gas – Adam
The Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) on Monday said it had the capacity to train everyone registered to be trained in oil and gas.
Mr Abdul Karim Adam, Coordinator of Oil and Gas Training, pointed out that the core mandate of MDPI was to offer the needed institutional training to organisations and individuals adding “despite the huge number of people who have registered for training in the oil and gas industry, all of them would benefit from the training.”
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Adam said: “Training people no matter their numbers is a call to national duty and will leave no stone unturned to ensure they received the requisite training to compete for jobs in the oil and gas industry.”
He said MDPI was undertaking the training, that was in three phases, in conjunction with Goodwill International Group, and that all trainees were expected to participate to ensure they were well equipped for the industry.
Mr Adam said so far, more than 10,000 people had registered for the training, saying “though we did not anticipate such a huge number it is our responsibility to ensure that we impart the needed skills and knowledge to them to ensure the country achieved its local content requirement in operations in the industry”.
Mr Adam explained that the local content law stipulated that about 90 per cent of Ghanaians should be employed to work in the oil and gas industry but if more people were not trained, Ghana could not meet the requirement and that would compel expatriates to dominate the industry.
He said training on the overview of oil and gas had been completed nationwide and training on Health Safety and Environment (HSE), would commence on Monday, May 30, for the same period to complete the first phase.
Mr Adam said phase two, which would commence at the end of phase one, would introduce trainees to four specialised models to address various careers, tailored towards equipping their competency based on hand-on skills that would be of immediate relevance to the industry.
He explained that phase three would expose the trainees to programmes designed to equip them to gain practical understanding of the oil and gas industry and expressed the hope that within the next six months the first round would be completed.
In another development, Mr Andrew Badoo, Director of Operations at Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) at the Public Services Commission’s annual lectures, deplored the lack of requisite personnel with basic skills on oil and gas in the country to fulfil the local content requirement.
He said there was the need to ensure that Ghanaians benefited from the oil find and its revenue but the country lacked the requisite personnel to work in the industry.
Mr Badoo said 10 companies had registered with the GNPC to operate in the industry, but most of them were using more expatriates than required because the country did not have the skilled personnel to fill in the local content gap, adding “this trend should be reversed”.
He noted that it was necessary for Ghana to maintain a realistic ratio between highly skilled professionals and personnel from other professions to take up jobs in the industry to improve on the local content participation.
Mr Badoo stressed the need for the nation to focus on training professionals qualified to work in the industry while accredited institutions strengthened their efforts to train more people.
Source: GNA