By URN
200 youths from the Tilenga Training Academy have been enrolled for studies at the Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba (UPIK) in Kiryandongo district.
They were selected from the 13,000 youths who applied through the Tilenga Massive open online courses a free program that started in 2022.
Speaking at the commencement of the training at Kigumba in Kiryandongo district on Tuesday, Philippe Groueix the General Manager of Total Energies Uganda highlighted that the two and half year training program is aimed at empowering the youths with skills of international competency-based accreditation to work on the Tilenga project.
He also noted that the selected trainees will take a range of courses in Oil and gas production and maintenance of which 31 percent of the trainees will specialize in production, 27 percent in mechanical maintenance, 26 percent in instrumentation maintenance, and 16 percent in electrical maintenance.
According to Groueix, the training will be followed by sessions at international oil and gas training centers and hands-on experience during the Tilenga project construction phase.
Ernest Rubondo the Executive Director of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) said that as the petroleum regulating body, they have a task of making sure that the good practices in the oil and gas training institutes around the world also are instituted at UPIK.
Rubondo pointed out that the trainees are to achieve the required skills and competence to work in Tilenga, Kingfisher, and ECOP projects.
Bernard Ongodia, the Principal of Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba (UPIK) noted that they are to start training the students to the institute’s approved standards of offshore Petroleum Industry Organization level one for six months.
He said that they will train production technicians and maintenance technicians who will be operating in the Tilenga fields and start specialization after six months.
Anxious Tumukunde one of the students from Mbarara University who is studying petroleum engineering and environmental management revealed that he was in his fourth year when he saw the call online and applied until he was selected for the training,
UPIK is the only institute with international accreditations such as the American Welding Society, and Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) among others to teach petroleum-related courses
