NCDMB to upgrade workshops, learning tools at PTI

• Wabote named Fellow, Petroleum Training Institute

Sopuruchi Onwuka

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board 9NCDMB) has pledged to assist the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Effurun, Warri, with the upgrade of its engineering workshops, digital learning tools and human resources.
The pedge came as the Executive Secretary of the board, Engr Simbi Wabote, charged the management of the institute to assert its relevance in the ongoing transformation of the Nigerian petroleum industry where development of local skills is required to drive the next phase of activities.
Engr Wabote who hosted the visiting management of the PTI at the Nigerian Content Towers in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, pledged that the regulator would assist the institute upgrade of engineering and technical workshops, facilities for virtual learning, staff development programmes through retraining, and industrial placement for staff and students.

Engr. Wabote stated that the PTI must raise general awareness of its existence, elevate its capacity and upgrade its facilities in order to achieve its full potential for capacity-building in the industry. He said the players in all the relevant sectors of the economy must recognize and rely on the PTI for grooming requisite skills for industry operations.
“A lot of people know you as an Institute but you’ve not been able to showcase yourself and market yourself” as to how the diploma and certificate programmes provided are vital for oil and gas industry operations, Wabote advised the institute.
The Oracle Today reports that the NCDMB and the PTI used the meeting to explore collaboration in delivering the shared mandate of local capacity development for the petroleum and linkage industries in the country.
Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote made it clear that the PTI must reclaim its position in petroleum industry skills development, recalling that key players in the petroleum industry had in the past relied and regarded the PTI as the ultimate centre for training of technicians in Nigeria.
He reiterated that PTI should be reckoned with for manpower development, better resourced than similar skills development centres abroad.
The NCDMB boss promised to send candidates to the Institute for training, but pointed out that a lot has changed in the highly technology-driven oil and gas industry, and that it should strive to keep pace with trends.
“Things have changed,” he noted, adding, “Technology has moved up and PTI…has to move up with technology.”
He agreed with the Management of the PTI, led by its Principal and Chief Executive, Dr. Henry A. Adimula, that a joint committee proposed at an earlier meeting in 2020 be expeditiously instituted to work out modalities for collaboration, assuring that the Board was prepared to intervene in critical areas through material assistance to the Institute to advance critical objectives of the organizations.
A signature event of the emerging partnership is the forthcoming International Conference on Hydrocarbon Science and Technology (ICHS), an initiative of the PTI Management to which the oil and gas industry regulator and Nigerian Content champion has pledged maximum support and collaboration.
That event is scheduled for Abuja within the last quarter of the year, and has received guarantees of participation from other key industry players including the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Earlier, Dr. Adimula had commended the NCDMB Management for support provided in the Institute’s plans to establish a research and development centre and the donation of software that has greatly aided capacity development. He disclosed that the PTI is determined to align itself with the aspirations of the nation in regard to the oil and gas industry and has been working closely with the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), OGTAN and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to establish operational standards for industry-related skills.
He identified the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) as one significant outcome of the Institute’s collaboration with other key industry players.
Established in 1973 by the Federal Government “as a prerequisite for membership of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to train indigenous middle-level manpower,” the PTI functions as an agency under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
On the sideline of the meeting, Engr. Wabote was awarded with the Fellowship of the Petroleum Training Institute (FPTI) by the principal of the Institute.