600 Ugandans Get Free Training in Oil and Gas Under World Bank Funded Project

The Government through Ministry of Education and Sports has signed a memorandum of understanding with three Internationally accredited institutions to train 600 Ugandans from Bunyoro sub region in Oil and Gas.

The beneficiaries will be trained under a 27-million-dollar World Bank funded project known as Albertine Region Sustainable Development Project.

The 600 beneficiaries will come from 15 Albertine region (Bunyoro sub region) districts of Hoima, Masindi, Bulisa, Nebbi, Nwoya, Kyenjojo, Kabarole, Kibale, Ntoroko, Kagadi, Kiryandongo, Kakumiro, Bunyangabo, Pakwach and Kikuube.

On behalf of Government, the memorandum was signed by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Mr Alex Kakooza at Ministry headquarters in Kampala on Friday.

The three institutions where the training will be conducted include Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba, Uganda Driving Standard Agency and Sun Maker Uganda.

Uganda Driving Standard Agency will train beneficiaries on how to operate heavy machines and driving of heavy trucks as Uganda Petroleum Institute and Sun Maker Uganda focus on Oil and Gas exploration.

The commissioner Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) in the Ministry of Education Ms Safinah Kisu Museene said that 40% of the beneficiaries will have to be females.

In 2012, Uganda launched Skilling Uganda strategic plan to transform the way Skilling/training is done in this country.

At the event, the Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary Alex Kakooza said they were concerned about the kind of skilling/ training that was being conducted.

“We were concerned that the skilling we were doing was not speaking to the requirements of the Industry,” said Kakooza.

To make it effective, he said Uganda skills development project and Albertine Region Sustainable Development projects were started.

“Under this project (Albertine Region Sustainable Development Project), we wanted to address the skills gap in the Oil and Gas sub sector. It was focusing mainly on Oil and Gas.”

When Oil was discovered in Albertine graben, many parents sent their children abroad, others in Uganda’s technical and institutions of higher learning such as Makerere to study Petroleum.

As a result, Kakooza said most of them got qualifications that were not required.

“A number of them did qualifications that are not yet required or some may not have been as relevant,” he said.

Kakooza added that they want to train people who are required hence coming up with the above training.