T-Poly gets oil and gas training centre
Technical education in the country has been given another boost with the inauguration of a well-equipped centre at the Takoradi Polytechnic to train students to acquire the needed expertise in oil and gas as well as the mining industries in the country.
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The centre is fully equipped with modern facilities and plants required to effectively run the accredited courses for students of the polytechnic at the local level, and is open to students or workers who would like to upgrade their skills in hands-on technical training in areas such as Instrumentation, Mechanical, Electrical, Process Engineering as well as health and safety issues.
Known as the Jubilee Technical Training Centre (JTTC), the facility was sponsored by the Jubilee Partners made up of the lead operator, Tullow Oil Ghana, Kosomos Energy Ghana, Anadarko WCTP Company, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Sabre Oil & Gas Holdings.
The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang who inaugurated the centre said the focus of the facility would ensure academic progression for highly qualified technical and vocational hands who had been trained locally in globally accepted fields.
She said the time had come for technical and vocational education and training to be given the needed recognition by African governments, adding that this must to be done through adequate budgetary allocations and the provision of modern infrastructure, as well as teaching and learning materials.
She pledged the government’s commitment to upgrade the country’s polytechnics into Technical Universities, which was expected to start this year, noting that the objective would pave way for academic progression for highly qualified technical and vocational students who hitherto have had no well-defined route for further academic studies.
She was optimistic that the move would ensure that the nation produced a high-calibre technical and managerial human resource base to respond to the rapid growth of the nation.
Inaugurating the centre, the President and General Manager of Tullow Ghana, Mr Dai Jones, said the facility would enable a number of industries to train the youth to change their career prospects and groom a larger workforce for the country.
“The success of the oil industry and all our businesses is heavily reliant upon the people that we are able to employ and work with; this facility will enable us to build and enhance the capacity of our workforce and build a longer term sustainable team.”
Mr Jones said the Jubilee Partners were delighted to partner the Ghana Government to set up the centre to enable the Takoradi Polythetic to offer courses to build the capacity of Ghanaian industries.
The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Mr Alfred Eko Gyan urged the polytechnic to ensure good maintenance of the facility and commended the Jubilee Partners for the initiative.
The centre will also run short courses for the award of certificate by the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) and Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) to meet the demands of industry and market.
Aside that, students will also be awarded an internationally accredited certificate such as National Vocational Qualification level II (NVQ level 2) which, according to officials of the centre, will make them competitive in the industry, both at home and abroad.
Takoradi Polytechnic started to offer Higher National Diploma programmes in the 1992 and 1993 academic year and has recently added some degree courses.
At the moment, it has two campuses, one in Takoradi, which houses the main campus, the central administration block, the schools of Applied Arts, Applied Science and Engineering, and Jubilee Training Centre. The other campus is at Butumadzebu in Sekondi, where the Business School is located.
By Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu