Lack of skilled staff hampers local content policy — MODEC
The Country Manager of MODEC, Mr Neil Woodcock, has called for increased training of skilled local human resource for the local oil and gas industry.
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He said there was a gap in the skill sets needed for the oil and gas industry.
“Majority of indigenous people who call themselves ‘welders and fabricators’ do not have any formal education and practical training as well as the required international certifications,” he said. “This lack of certification makes the engagement of Ghanaian welders difficult in the upstream petroleum sector," he added.
Welder training centre
That, he said, informed the decision by MODEC to collaborate with Tullow Ghana Limited to fund and construct a state-of-the-art Welder Training Centre at the Regional Maritime University (RMU) in Accra. The US$1.6 million-training centre is expected to spearhead Ghana’s quest to become a major energy hub in the sub-region.
The first of its kind in Ghana, the centre is equipped with the best welding equipment and training technology in the region. It will be accredited by the American Welding Society (AWS) and its training programmes will be in modules that will accommodate 20 students at a time.
“This partnership between MODEC and RMU is a mutually benefiting enterprise,” the Project Manager MODEC, Mr Papa Benin, said.
“It is such that both organisations get the opportunity to leave footprints in Ghana’s agenda of becoming labour sufficient in the oil and gas industry and the destination for internationally accepted training programmes and institutions,” he explained.
Bridging theory and practice gap
The RMU, a maritime educational and training institution based in Accra, was established by selected West African countries to help bridge the gap between theory and practice. It launched its Offshore Oil and Gas Safety Training Centre in February 2010.
The centre was set up to provide cost effective training to Ghanaians to augment the Local Content and Local Participation in Petroleum Activities policy framework of the government of Ghana. However, due to a shortfall in proper facilities, it lacked the capacity to churn out properly accredited welders to feed the labour needs created by the new oil and gas industry.
The Provost of the university, Mr Addy Lamptey, was confident the initiative between MODEC and Tullow Ghana would significantly benefit RMU and raise its profile as an organisation capable of providing high quality educational and technical training programmes.
“The university is excited at the prospect of now being in the position to provide internationally accepted training and accreditation to boost the labour pool for the oil and gas sector and the engineering associated companies in the country and the region at large,” he said.
The Welder Training Centre is expected to accept its first class of students in July, 2016.