Opening ceremony of APPO Forum of Directors of Oil and Gas Training Institute, June 21, 2023, Algeria
APPO works to strengthen all actors in the industry’s supply chain through cooperation, collaboration, and exchange of experiences among member countries. It is in this context that it has set up its Forum of Directors of Training Institutes.
The APPO Forum of Directors of Oil and Gas Training Institute was launched on June 21, 2023. The meeting was hosted by Sonatrach, Algeria’s national oil company, at the premises of the Algerian Petroleum Institute (IAP) in the wilaya of Skikda. It is an initiative that is sustainable, since a second meeting of the forum is scheduled to start on May 15 2024 in Abuja, Nigeria. Indeed, APPO’s core mission is to use hydrocarbons as a catalyst for energy security, sustainable development, and economic diversity in Africa. The creation of the Forum of Directors of Oil and Gas Training Institutes is part of the achievement of this major and vital goal for African economies. The Forum is designed to enable Member Countries to share programmes for the exchange of information and experience, including human resource capacity-building.
Background of the Forum
The establishment of the Forum is not a coincidence. It came following a study conducted by APPO on the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa in the light of the Energy Transition. The study highlighted four imminent challenges for the industry, namely project financing, development of technologies and expertise, and development of oil and gas infrastructure and market. Following this study, APPO developed its long-term strategic plan which was approved by the Ministerial Council at its 43rd session held on 4 November 2022 in Luanda, Angola. To implement the plan for the development of oil and gas workforce expertise in Member Countries, the Secretariat undertook evaluation visits to existing training and capacity-building institutes and Research & Development Centers in Member Countries. One of the outcomes of these assessment visits was the recommendation to create a Forum where directors and managers of training institutes in the oil and gas sectors of Member Countries could come together to discuss common objectives, programmes, synergies, and challenges in order to develop a collaborative platform accordingly to address identified issues and achieve common objectives.
Support cooperation and collaboration among Member Countries
The establishment of the Forum aims to strengthen cooperation and collaboration among Member Countries in the field of training. More specifically, the Forum aims to meet periodically to discuss current challenges in terms of the development of expertise and the exchange of experiences. Its fields of action include the harmonization of training programmes and the launch of new ones, the improvement of certification training, as well as the establishment of synergies and collaboration modalities to benefit from the unused capacities available. Other areas of intervention related to the role of higher education in improving Research and Development capacities, school levels and admission requirements to training institutes, the application of best practices in the development of expertise and training, as well as the integration of internship programmes into technical and vocational education and the harmonization of languages of instruction are considered.
Abuja in the continuity of Algiers
The Forum is composed of the directors of the oil and gas vocational training institutes, of the institutes of higher studies and the directors of the training and manpower departments of the National Oil and Gas Companies of APPO. Online with the commitments made in Algeria last year, its members are meeting in Abuja to continue the work started. After a joint review of the recommendations of the inaugural meeting, the participants will listen to the report of the Chair of the Forum Mr Abdelkader Guenoune, Director of Institut Algérien du Pétrole on the activities of the working group, as well as the reports on the implementation of the recommendations of the inaugural meeting by the respective delegates. Their work in plenary will focus on the harmonization of vocational training, higher education programmes and the improvement of R&D and innovation through postgraduate education and training. Discussions will also revolve around APPO certified training institutes, trainees, certified programmes and APPO certified trainers. The meeting in Abuja is scheduled to last two days.
