CHIEF Executive Officer of Ghana’s Petroleum Commission Egbert Faibille Jnr on Thursday extended an invitation to have persons from Guyana trained in the oil and gas sector.
Faibille extended the invitation during a panel discussion as part of the Ghana-Guyana Local Content Conference hosted by the Ghana Chamber of Commerce – Guyana.
At the time, the four-person panel was discussing promotion of local workforce development in the oil and gas sector in both countries.

Sharing Ghana’s experiences in this regard, Faibille stated that Ghana has regulations in place so as to ensure that corporations operating in the oil and gas sector train Ghanaians to participate in the sector.
As he spoke about the various training programmes in which persons in the country have participated, he extended an invitation to Guyana to send youths to Ghana to study at technical and vocational institutes to gain the necessary qualifications to work offshore.
He stated that when these workers return to Guyana, they will be snapped up after having received these technical certifications.

Meanwhile, as the panellists discussed the upskilling of persons to further promote the development of the local workforce, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin stated that over time the university has introduced several new programmes that were not on the books before.

Against this backdrop, she added that the university will launch a marine programme in about a month’s time and she noted that lots of work have to be done on that front in the sector.
The Vice-Chancellor further added that the University of Guyana is also rolling out a new course that has to do with infrastructure, construction and design.

Further, she noted that while there is an increasing need for engineers, the university is doubling the size of laboratories, even as she revealed that they have moved from 150 persons passing through the engineering programme each year to about 350.