The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) yesterday revealed that no Nigerian University offers welding engineering programme either at undergraduate or post graduate levels.
This is despite Federal Government effort to bridge local skills gap existing in the oil and gas sector and retain the sectors job, most of which are currently exported.
The revelation was contained in a study commissioned by PTDF which showed that the lack enthusiasm by the universities has been taken up by privately owned training centres with 50 of such facilities starting up in the country through the assistance of the Fund.
The study carried out by the Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW) to audit and evaluate welding capacities in vocational, tertiary and private institutions in Nigeria, found a huge deficiency in the training programme for welders especially in area of advanced and specialized welding.
While speaking at the presentation, PTDF Executive Secretary, Femi Ajayi noted that until the intervention of the Fund in the training of welders, only two facilities were training welders in Nigeria. He however, expressed satisfaction that privately owned welders training facilities has now grown to 50 with over 1200 Nigerians trained in basic welding processes.
Giving details of the report, NIW president, Solomon Edebri, who presented it in Abuja yesterday, said 214 institutions were involved in the study including universities and polytechnics.
The report found that “Zero percent of Nigerian universities offer welding engineering as a degree program either at graduate or post graduate level. 22 per cent of Nigerian universities offer at least three COREN accredited engineering programs that are closely related to welding engineering and technology.”
Source: Leadership
