ESSO continues the journey to Improve quality of geoscience studies in Nigerian universities

The “Train-the-trainer” workshop - the third in its series - was organized in conjunction with Danvic Concept International, and is part of the EEPNL sponsored University Assistance Program (UAP), under which Esso sponsors the construction of Geoscience workrooms equipped with workstations, plotters and printers to selected universities, and sponsors the training of lecturers and students on the usage of these machines. This effort is complemented by other establishments like Schlumberger, which donates and loads the required software to support the program. Till date, ExxonMobil’s sponsorship of the programme is in excess of 500 million Naira.

During the opening ceremony of the workshop, held at the Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, the Manager, Deepwater Production Geoscience, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Mr. Goodluck Adagbasa, said there was a need for Geoscience lecturers to constantly update their knowledge in the field, so as to be in tune with the current reality in the oil and gas Industry.

He hinged the decision of Esso to participate in the training and the retraining of lecturers, through the University Assistance Programme (UAP), on the need to ensure that Nigeria consistently produced quality man-power for the oil and gas sector of the economy. According to him, this action would reduce capital flight, which would ensure that more home-grown Nigerians with requisite skills are employed.

“As we all know, the world is fast becoming a global village and the use of technology in the quest for oil and gas exploration cannot be over emphasized. It is therefore necessary to empower graduates coming out of our educational system to compete with their counterparts from other parts of the world in the market place. It is our sincere hope and believe that the better the output from our universities, the better impact on societal growth,” he said.

Adagbasa further implored the participating-lecturers to take full advantage of the workshop to not only refresh their knowledge, but also to effectively utilize the knowledge gained in improving the quality of their students.

Underscoring the importance of the programme, the Project Consultant and Managing Director of Ehimade Nigeria Limited, Dr. Lambert Aikhiovbare, said Esso had to take up the responsibility of improving lecturers’ capacity because the quality of graduates from Nigerian universities has been dropping over the years, adding that employers spend huge resources in the re-training of these graduates before they could match up to acceptable standards. In his words, “The students cannot be properly developed if the teachers don’t know what they are teaching.”

The participants were drawn from six universities; Federal University of Technology, Akure; Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye; University of Lagos; University of Ado Ekiti, Ado Ekiti; and University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

The first edition of the programme was held at Benin, Edo State in August, 2012 while the second edition held at Enugu in November, 2012. At the end of the third edition of the programme, a total of 60 lecturers from 20 universities have benefitted from the capacity building workshop.

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