THE Federal Government has urged the management of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State, to review its curriculum in order to produce graduates with skills and capacity to function in the 21st century oil and gas industry.
This came as the institute said it had graduated no fewer than 50,000 technologists, technicians and other technical personnel since inception in various aspects of oil and gas and allied industries.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, made the call for the review of the curriculum of the institute at the 50th anniversary celebration of PTI in Abuja.
PTI, Effurun, was founded in 1972 via a decree of then military regime of General Yakubu Gowon, to provide competent technological manpower through quality training, research and consultancy for the petroleum and allied industries.
Principal/Chief Executive Officer of PTI, Dr Henry Adimula, in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune said that the institute had produced quality graduates who are sought after and most preferred choices for employment in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and across the globe.
Adimula noted that aside from the core training programmes for undergraduates, the institute had retrained thousands of personnel, who are already working in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and had equally trained youths through the academy, equipping them with capacity to function in the oil and gas industry.
He disclosed that the PTI intended to focus research in these key areas in order to develop local content capacity in oil technology.
He said that this would enable Nigeria to achieve some independence in the design and production of technology for the oil industry.
A former president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Chinonso Obasi, an alumnus of PTI, called for immediate employment for every PTI graduate in view of the skills and specialised nature of training received at the institute.
Obasi particularly called on the Federal Government to come up with a policy, making it mandatory for every PTI graduate to be absorbed in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, arguing that it is difficult for PTI graduates to be employed outside the energy sector.
He noted that there is a gap between the training being offered to students and the labour market.
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