Train others in oil sector in your skills – President Akufo-Addo to AOGC beneficiaries

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged beneficiaries of the government’s Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity (AOGC) programme to use their skills in stainless steel welding, which they acquired in ten months of training at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Canada, to train other Ghanaians and boost local participation in the national oil and gas sector.

President Akufo-Addo admonished the beneficiaries when they paid a courtesy call on him on their return to Ghana, after they successfully completed the $250,000 training scheme sponsored by the energy services company Baker Hughes.

“I remember when this whole adventure began and it is good that it has ended well,” President Akufo-Addo said. “I first of all congratulate the graduates. Well done. You have gone and conquered and come back. Academic prowess is necessary, but it is not a sufficient condition for success. It’s now that you are going to learn on the job the full dimensions of what you have learned in the classroom.

“You have to continue to work hard and work with integrity, knowing that you have a lot of people who will be wishing you a lot of success,” he said.

Baker Hughes

Oghogho (OG) Dixon, director for Ghana and drilling services (sub-Saharan Africa) with Baker Hughes, the company that sponsored the training scheme, made brief remarks.

She praised the five beneficiaries for completing their training successfully. The academic institution in Canada reported that the Ghanaian students had been very enthusiastic and professional throughout their course, she added.

“I must say that the feedback and report we got from the university on the performance of these students are excellent and we are proud of them. Ghana has a bright future in the stainless steel welding space,” Dixon said.

Petroleum Commission

After the ceremony, the chief executive officer of the Petroleum Commission, Egbert Faibille, told members of the press that the AOGC’s aim is to develop Ghanaians’ capacity in core technical areas such as welding and metal fabrication, pipe fitting, non-destructive test techniques and drilling engineering.

The Commission has plans to train many more Ghanaians to acquire skills that will give them the opportunity to work in the upstream oil industry, he said.

“We want to move beyond the current phase where a lot of jobs in the upstream space are given to expatriates to do because our people do not have the necessary international certification to do the work,” Faibille said.

Beneficiaries

The Petroleum Commission chief executive further said that the first batch of AOGC beneficiaries, who left Ghana on 14 July last year and returned on 9 July 2020, will be training other young people who are interested in upstream welding.

This will help develop more young people’s capacity and enable their possible engagement by players in the oil and gas sector.

The five trainees who visited the president are James Bewiekah, Michael Attobrah, Abdul Rahman Dayankrah, Bright Oduro and Joseph Ghunney. The first two were selected from the Kikam Technical Institute, the third and fourth from the Jubilee Technical Training Centre at Takoradi Technical University, and the fifth from Kumasi Suame Magazine.

Ghunney holds a degree in public relations but decided to learn welding, which took him to Suame Magazine. It was here that the AOGC team discovered him during their search mission.

The AOGC

The AOGC was established in November 2017 with the intention of enhancing Ghanaians’ capacity to work in oil and gas. The scheme will run for five years.

The scheme aims to train individuals in various technical and vocational areas; build the capacity of educational institutions in Ghana to enable them to train students better and provide them with internationally recognised skills and qualifications; provide business and management training for small and medium-sized enterprises; and ensure the continuous professional development of employees in various public institutions connected with the oil and gas industry.

The objectives of the programme are as follows: to ensure the creation of jobs and professional integration pathways; facilitate capacity-building of educational and training institutions; invest in education and skills enhancement; minimise the cost of training; localise training; improve the quality of education/training; empower local companies to participate actively in the oil and gas industry; train Ghanaians in high-job-creating sectors (welding, pipe fitting, fabrication and installation and so on); and to encourage women’s participation in oil and gas subsectors.

Wilberforce Asare / Asaase Radio

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UPDATE: The spellings of some graduands’ names were corrected on 15 August 2020.