Skills for Oil and Gas Africa Annual Regional Conference and Launch kicks off in Nairobi

The Skills for Oil and Gas Africa (SOGA) Annual Regional Conference and launch has opened in Nairobi with the aim of addressing skill gaps in the oil and gas supply chain in Eastern Africa and to assist the private sector and partner governments in preparing their workforces for upcoming opportunities.

The event that had Director General of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Prof. Wainaina Gituro as the Key speaker has been initiated by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID-Kenya) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and will be implemented by GIZ in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.

Top on the agenda are ways to solve various challenges in the sector such as quality of education, poor linkage between education and industry, international standards and certification and ways of providing information on investment prospects, oil development projects and procedures of entering into contract agreements with oil companies.

Under education discussions will be based on how to ensure qualifications are competency based and modularized.

There will also be presentation surrounding skills supply and demand in East Africa, cooperation with oil and gas companies & non-governmental organizations, developing local content as well as increasing employability of local people in the oil and gas supply chain.

The two day conference also seeks to address ways to ensure enterprise development in the region as well as mechanisms to put in place instruments to promote employment and self-employment.

SOGA aims to increase jobs in the oil and gas industry by 32,000 35 percent of which will be women and 40 percent youth as well as raise the incomes of 240000 by 10 percent.

SOGA’s strategy and activities work through delivering support Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions by improving the quality of their training and ensuring relevance the demands of the oil and gas sector.