Charles Nwaoguji
The Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), in conjunction with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) are planning to hold a one-day National Education Summit (NES) with the theme, “Sustaining Local Content through Quality Education and Training: Prospects and Challenges”.
The organisers of the event, OGTAN, said it has designed the summit billed to hold on April 16 to proffer solution that will bridge the gap between the academia and the petroleum industry. “It is a well known fact that fresh graduates from Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are ill-equipped to grab the opportunities the oil industry offers and as a result, the multi-billion dollar industry contributed a paltry 10 per cent to the nation’s GDP as at 2017 Q3 (according to National Bureau of Statistics, NBS).
“It is in the light of this that OGTAN aspires to fix this defect by bringing industry stakeholders and the academia to a roundtable to identify issues bedevilling human capacity development in the industry and to proffer sustainable, private-sector-driven solutions that would enhance in-country value addition.”
Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, will lead the deliberations alongside a team of panelists consisting of university dons, CEOs of operating and service companies, oil industry agencies of government, educational regulatory bodies, and training practitioners.
A practical approach to the review of educational curriculum, existing internships, research programmes, educational funds, and lots more will be x-rayed.
The evening of same day will witness a dinner reception in honour of the distinguished and award-winning Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, who bagged the OGTAN Local Content Achievement Award for 2018.