Ugandans may no longer need to travel
abroad to acquire skills in the oil and gas sector says Ernest Rubondo, the
Executive Director of the Petroleum Authority.
He said the achievements of skills development in the country have not been only on manpower development.
"In the country right now there are some very high-quality training institutions that have come as a result of this effort of skilling for the oil and gas sector. Previously when we were looking at how Uganda can train its technicians we went to Malaysia. But these days when I visit Kigumba, I don't see a very big difference from what I saw in Malaysia"
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Rubondo said the petroleum industry has
helped to develop several skills that never existed in the country before the
discovery of oil and gas.
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He however said there are some areas
where skills development has not achieved the levels that are required. Those
include instrumentation, field development, and drilling technicians.
Speaking at the opening of the Oil and
Gas Skills Expo 2024 under the theme “Training and
Skills: Unlocking Employment Opportunities in the Oil and Gas Sector and Beyond”
Rubondo revealed that over 13000 Ugandans have been trained and internationally certified in some of the skills for oil and gas.
“It is like you don't need more from a point of shortage. It is also good to recognize that these
trades are not restricted to the oil and gas sector. Plumbing, welding scaffolding,
heavy goods vehicle driving. These skills can be used across other sectors of
the economy,” said Rubondo.
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“The oil and gas sector came in, supported
these skills development and it has produced an excess of these workers who are
now spilling into other sectors of the economy”
The training of workers for the oil and gas
sector has been part of the Workforce Skill Development Strategy and plan.
The government with funding from the
World Bank conducted a Workforce Skills Development Strategy and Plan (WSDSP) in
2013.
The study established that the
infrastructure developments would create over one hundred, sixty thousand
(160,000) direct, indirect, and induced jobs and over 70% of these jobs would
be for artisans and technicians, with international certification.
From the
findings, the government developed several strategies to ensure that Ugandans
get employment in the nascent sector.
Part of the strategies involved the
upgrading of the then-existing vocational training centers and the establishment
of an oil and gas-focused vocational training center at Petroleum Institute
Kigumba (UPIK).
The country now has up to three thousand Ugandan
heavy goods truck drivers compared to twenty-two qualified Ugandan heavy goods
truck drivers when the oil and gas sector began.
The Authority last week awarded certificates
to 110 heavy goods drivers as part of efforts to build skills for the transportation
of oil and gas equipment.
“Those of you who are not so young will
remember that in Uganda, the heavy goods vehicle truck drivers were always
Somalis. You were sure that whenever you looked up a big truck, a person
driving it would be a Somali and never a Ugandan,” he said.
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He said apart from a few qualified heavy
goods truck drivers in the country, there were even no training institutions.
“I think there was only one training
institution that had also started as a safety institution. The training
institution did not have a truck where drivers could practice,” said Rubond.
He said the country now has five training
institutions for the instruction and training of heavy goods truck drivers.
Some
of the heavy goods truck drivers in the oil and gas sector are women. Most of
them were trained as part of the skills development for the oil sector.
“I think now if you are on the road and
you see a heavy goods vehicle. If you look up the vehicle, you are not likely
to see a Somali driving it. You can correct me if I’m wrong,” added Rubondo.
“Somalis
are not bad people; we have a very good working relationship, but heavy goods
vehicle driving is not very complicated that requires people to come from
outside the country” he empathized.
