How school is filling skills gap to meet new oil sector demand

A Tullow Oil exploration rig in Turkana. Morendat Institute moves to bridge yawning skills gap ahead of large-scale gas exploitation in region. FILE PHOTO | NMG  

By JONAH AIYABEI

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Summary

• KPC’s Morendat Institute moves to bridge yawning skills gap ahead of large-scale gas exploitation in region.
• The oil and gas school is established as a technical training institute and registered by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA).
• MIOG courses are demand- driven and geared towards providing skills that enable trainees to perform given tasks consistently within the expected industry standard.

In a world where education systems are shifting from emphasis on knowledge to competency, the new Morendat Institute of Oil and Gas (MIOG) is definitely an institution whose time has come.

When Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) set up the school in 2016 with a specific focus of developing human resource capacity in oil and gas pipelines management, operations and maintenance, the state corporation was also setting up Kenya’s first institution to have its competency-based curriculum approved by the newly established curriculum and assessment agency.

In many countries around the world, debate on the suitable education system has too often focused on structures and delivery of content while largely ignoring the learning outcomes of the content passed.

Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) systems put emphasis on the former without ignoring the latter and that is why the Kenya government’s bold move to embrace competency-based education and training is a not just a plus for the oil and gas sector but also has the potential to significantly contribute towards alleviating the huge unemployment challenge in line with Vision 2030’s aspirations.

The KPC oil and gas school is established as a technical training institute and registered by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA).

Headquartered in Morendat, Naivasha, its genesis is traced to the 7th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) that was held in Kampala in October 2014 when KPC’s Morendat Training and Conference Center was designated a Centre of Excellence in Oil and Gas Pipelines with the main objective of developing human resource capacity for the partner states in oil and gas pipelines management, operations and maintenance.

NCIP is an initiative of the Northern Corridor Regional Heads of State from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan that aims to provide direction on the deepening regional integration effort.

The school’s curricula as approved by TVETACDACC cover five areas of expertise including oil pipeline mechanical maintenance, oil pipeline operations, oil pipeline laboratory technology, oil pipeline fire officer and oil pipeline instrumentation and control.

The curricula were developed by highly trained experts in line with TVETCDACC guidelines. Most importantly, the school is modelled to offer training in small manageable classes of about 15 students. Learning in this institute is unique.

The trainees are subjected to continuous assessment by internal experts and the assessment is validated by external assessors and verified before being awarded a TVETCDACC national certification.  

MIOG courses are demand- driven and geared towards providing skills that enable trainees to perform given tasks consistently within the expected industry standard.

Rather than design curricula to meet assumed needs, the development of MIOG curricula involved oil and gas sector skills stakeholders advisory committees in developing occupational standards.

The standards underpin assessment tools plus learning packages, which are used as guides in delivering and measuring learning outcomes as identified in the standards.

The training responds to the needs of society and offers an alternative path towards advancement in education through TVET. It is noteworthy that the trainers in each module of the courses have been selected from experienced oil and gas practitioners.

Besides, mode of delivering the training is designed to be at least 70 per cent practical. In countries such as Australia and Germany, the key factor that employers consider in engaging their human resource is competency.

The Morendat school is the third oil and gas training centre in Africa after Transnet School of Pipelines in South Africa and Sonatrach in Algeria.

Establishing this school demonstrates KPC’s commitment to bridging the sector skills gaps as the region prepares to exploit new oil and gas opportunities.

KPC is the only white pipeline operator in Eastern Africa with over 1,300 kilometres of pipeline network but as the region embarks on large scale oil and gas exploitation, experts estimate that over 2,700 kilometres of pipelines will be developed to coincide with this significant growth.

This will require over 2,500 technicians up from the 700 that the region has all of whom are working in KPC.

These demand dynamics in the sector is what Morendat Institute of Oil and Gas will be out to address so as to build human resource base in the member states to manage, operate and maintain oil and gas pipelines