KAMPALA —As the Ugandan oil and gas industry nears take-off, experts say students in petroleum related fields should exploit available opportunities to position themselves as sector players seek to skill workers.
There is concern that since Ugandan authorities confirmed the existence of commercial quantities of oil around Lake Albert in 2007, students aiming to work in the industry have not fully developed the required skills ahead of commercial production in 2025.
A students engagement at the Makerere University
observed that young people’s access to information on relevant oil and gas skills is still limited, putting them at risk of studying irrelevant courses.
Mr. Godfrey Kagga, a Drilling and Performance Engineer at TotalEnergies Uganda whose firm is helping to offer young graduates an opportunity to gain the much needed International experience in the oil and gas industry tipped on key strategic areas including procurement, health among others.
“TotalEnergies Uganda supports local graduates in capacity building through recruitment, integration, training, development and career assessment. We believe that the key to developing a sustainable expert workforce is by contributing to the development of the knowledge base and the growth of its human capital, he said, noting that the experience provides a platform for the young people to learn from the different experts in the business,” said Mr Kagga students’ technical conference organized by Society of Engineers Makerere University Chapter and the Makerere University Petroleum and Geological Society (MPGS).
“We have many testimonials from here at Makerere, of some of the beneficiaries of these trainings and skill enhancement and there will be more,” he added.
To address the evolving information needs, Kaggwa said TotalEnergies EP Uganda has so far supported 12 different oil and gas related courses at Kyambogo University, Makerere University Business School and Makerere University under the TotalEnergies Professeurs Associés (TPA) programme.
The courses offered have covered Oil and gas law,
Oil and gas investment decision making,
Introduction to oil and gas exploration to development,
Oil and gas economics and drilling engineering.
“TotalEnergies EP Uganda facilitates the entire programme in Uganda and no costs are incurred by the university or the students interested in undertaking these courses,” he said.
The students were tipped in the areas of health and safety, contract and procurement, human resource, business development.
Other areas covered are geology, drilling and testing, environment impact assessment and marketing as well as management.
Mr. Seith Muhumuza, the Manager Stakeholder Management at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) advised the students seeking employment in the sector to sign up for the National Oil and Gas Talent Register (NOGTR) in order to boost their visibility.
