Oil and Gas Academy Laments Dearth Of Offshore Professionals.

The Oil and Gas Education and Research Academy has said that Nigeria currently lacks adequate personnel in offshore activities, even as the organisation has harped on the need for adequate training and retraining in order for the country to fill up the knowledge gap and to also compete with their international counterparts.

The Oil and Gas Education and Research Academy has said that Nigeria currently lacks adequate personnel in offshore activities, even as the organisation has harped on the need for adequate training and retraining in order for the country to fill up the knowledge gap and to also compete with their international counterparts.
Managing Consultant of the academy, Mr. Christopher Imumolen told Shipping Position Daily in a chat last week, charged the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to step up implementation of the law and to also beef up its capacity building exercise.
Imumolen explained that in order to further bridge the knowledge gap, the academy in collaboration with Joint Professionals Training and Support International (JPTSI) has started a five months training course in petroleum product marketing, health safety and environment compliance and oil field facility management courses.
The training according to him, also covers: certified international project managers courses, onshore offshore HSE supervisor course, environmental impact assessment, transportation and logistics chain management as well as quality assurance and quality control.
He said that participants stand to gain knowledge and they also stand to be certified as a trained personnel in these different fields, “and as a matter of fact, our certificate is valid in all these oil and gas industry so they stand a better opportunity to get the jobs they wanted”
Speaking further, Imumolen said that participants will also “get membership into onshore and offshore professional groups, here they will have the privilege to meet with other professionals and network with them, sometimes we do have request for employment from companies that we train, so if they ask us for something that is in line with their qualification we can also recommend them for employment”
“Some courses need training that the others, so the duration of the courses varies from three ) weekends, the shortest you have is for three weekends” he said and added that the training is to be conducted in Lagos State, Abuja, Warri, Delta State, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State.