S5 Ep. 299 Graduate Trainee Programs And The Future Of Africa’s Energy Workforce

SPEAKER_01: So somebody said once to me, I'm giving you a cup of coffee. And the person brought the coffee and I asked the person, Is this coffee? SPEAKER_00: Hi. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good everything. How are you? I'm fine. I'm good. Back to what I started with. So the person brought that the the coffee and he didn't have the froth like this. And I said, this is not, this is sorry to say, this is not espresso. SPEAKER_01: You just gave me Nest Cafe. Sorry, Nest Cafe, I'm not against you. I still do Nest Cafe for your information. Mm-hmm. Yeah. SPEAKER_00: You can never go wrong with a good cup of coffee. Instead of going around the house every morning hating on people, I think you just take a cup of coffee. Heat. Heat on people, not hate on people. Alright, let me just have this fun. Okay. Welcome to the World Cafe Live Show. I'm excited. So what are we going to be doing today? So lately, I'm very active on LinkedIn. I love knowledge. So I go for knowledge. I read. I read other people's thoughts. You know, I see what they do. LinkedIn is a professional platform. Professional in the sense that is not just corporate for your information. This is how I view it, because so many times people see it as a corporate platform. No, it's a professional platform. And if you are a professional in what you do, maybe you are a dancer, a horticulturist, a chef, uh, you are, name it. It's a profession. It provides a platform for you to come share your thoughts, put it out there. It's a social media platform anyway. Even though some people come there to do certain things, I see as not LinkedIn worthy. But who am I? So lately I've been seeing a lot of um graduate trainee programs on the platform. So I know on this show I've said it before, my activities, you know, spans within the oil and gas space. And I follow a lot within the oil and gas space. The African continent is uh picking up within the energy space. We're a big player, and a lot has been happening. The energy space in Africa has existed for over half a century. Yeah, over half a century. And what we are seeing happening now is like we're seeing the change of God. So to say, the older generation, they are, you know, leaving and we're having this gap. So a good number of organizations within the energy space are beginning to like have, it's not as if they've not been having it, but now it's like we're having a lot of training programs, which is good. SPEAKER_01: Yeah. SPEAKER_00: Graduate trainee programs, which is good. And I ask myself, you know, when I see all of them popping up, coming up, popping up, coming up, it's like, okay, what's the target? What's the aim? For the future, what's the target? What's the aim? What are we looking at? What areas are we training for? What kind of competences? What kind of capabilities or capacity? What are we looking at? Are we training for to build on the existing, would I say, uh, ecosystem? Or are we just training because there's a budget for it? Because it has really moved. The oil and gas or the energy space globally has moved. You know, there was a time there was this, what I call it, pursuit for renewables, you know, green energy and all of that, where that was, I think, pre-COVID or before the COVID, a lot of the energy industry companies were going back on fossil fuel and all of that. But after the COVID and seeing what the earth really needs in terms of energy to run the earth, so to say, we say that okay, we can't go back. We cannot go back on this. We need to intensify. Then again, we're beginning to see a lot of international energy companies within the African space moving away from certain assets, you know, like the land and swamp assets. Am I confusing you now? Don't worry, just listen. You learn one or two things. So they are moving away, creating room for the indigenous or the independent oil and gas firms or energy firms to come in and play and be players, you know, and all of that. So those are the aspects you're looking at now. You have the upstream, midstream, and uh downstream. That's the value chain of the energy sector, you know. So you have the oil servicing firms, you have the uh name them service providers, support functions, and all of that. You even have the regulators in you know to check what the independents are doing. So we need to now look at the forms of training to undertake. Now, I said that before now we used to pay attention to things like petroleum economics, you know, where you have you know petroleum economics, then you have drilling engineers, then you have things like uh geosciences, that's uh geology, seismic studies, and all of that. But again, we're beginning to see even the support functions begin to grow, like you have the commercial law, ethical principles, and all of that, then HR, you know, those who handle the procedures, the interpret the books in terms of remuneration and benefits and all of that. So we need to pay, in my opinion, that's you know, because I mean I observed the future. What would the future bring? Or what does the future hold? There's a lot of space. Again, we are seeing a lot of people who are beginning to like retire from that space because of you know age and the law. So you're not beginning to have new opportunities, but you must know what you're training for. Is it a good thing? Yes, it is. Yes, it is, absolutely. And I think a lot of organizations should pay attention to that. Yeah, pay attention to training. There's nothing wrong in training. Somebody will say, Ah, but these guys, they went to university, they just graduated with good grades and all that. That's a whole kettle of fish. It's a whole different ball game. You know, you being having all the degrees is different from coming into the operations, where you come to see that, like yes, what we did in school, the ideal versus the real. So, where you begin to see temperature and uh pressure really affecting things. So you're beginning to see that, oh, what I studied in school is far different from what I'm seeing here now, you know, and all of that. It is good. So that's to say that the training departments of most of these organizations should begin to look at strengthening these areas, like the OJTs on the job training and all of that, begin to strengthen them because the future has a lot. SPEAKER_01: It's changing. SPEAKER_00: The dynamism as in it's so dynamic, the space is so dynamic that you sleep and wake up, you see a change. You go to the bathroom to take a bathroom break, you come back, you see a change. It's that bad. So you need to pay attention to that and see how you can put the right people in the right place to run it. Should we train? Like I said, absolutely, we should train because the training helps to cover gaps that the school system could not cover. They've gone to school, they've gathered all the information, that's information. Now you are not looking at how will this data work? How do I use the data now? How do I take it to the next level? How would it work? So that's where you begin to like do the necessary. And I'm really glad. Yes, I'm really glad. Glad that organizations are taking those bold steps. But again, you need to understand also for those who are being trained, you need to understand that you're not just being trained for an organization, you're being trained for an industry. So you must have that at the back of your mind. You are being trained for an industry, not just for an organization. What does that mean? You must put yourself to work because there are a lot of opportunities out there. A lot. So if A doesn't, B is available, C, D, even the independent, you can even start something like you know, consulting or something, you know, providing a particular service for a company within the industry or for the industry. So it's a very good thing. Now, another thing again we need to look at or consider is the collaboration now, the collaboration within the government and service providers and companies within that space. You know, you you you you partner because to a large degree we can't do without the government. We can't do without the government. So, and the government cannot do without this companies or this industry because it is, it brings a level of economic empowerment. It brings in the liquid cash that will cause the industry to grow. An aspect, again, which, in my thinking, has become a necessity is the AI craze, the AI revolution. You know, back then, when you look at training processes and all of that, technology was not this advanced. But as we speak now, technology has gone one, two, three, four steps into the future, and AI is what is doing it. What is AI? Artificial intelligence is what is doing it now. So we need to, you know, embrace it, infuse it into what we do, and see how we can advance the cost of the industry. Well, I felt to come share this, you know, with us on the show. Training on the future, you know, training organizations that are out there, organizations that are, you know, out to train, train for companies, train for the government, train for the industry. You have a lot to do. You have a lot to do. So you need to put in place excellent services so that I mean, whoever encounters you will like, wow, this person knows what he or she is doing, or this organization knows what they are doing. All right then, guys, every society which I mean thrives and lives and you know moves from one level of progress to the other, training is key. Very, very key. Yeah, training is key because it helps to cover a lot of gaps. You know, it helps to cover a lot of gaps where you when you have you carry out some certain analysis to see actual vessels, you know, and all that, you come to see the gaps. So training is what helps to plug these gaps and equip the individuals that will go out there to do the job professionally speaking. So don't look back on it. Don't look back on it. If if you go to advanced, civilized, as we want to call it societies, you see it there. Training schools, training for various industries. It could be fashion, it could be um extractive, it could be the energy sector, just name it. They are training. They are training. So, in other words, you also need trainers, you know, those who understand. They've been in this space, they've gathered a wealth of knowledge over the years, and they are seasoned in what they do. So you now need them to come sit. So I'll close with this. SPEAKER_01: You know, back in school, we used to go into the lab, excuse me. You can't go wrong with a good cup of coffee. SPEAKER_00: We used to go into the lab for practicals. I remember him, Professor Onoshakbo. I think he's translated now. SPEAKER_01: So there was this particular class. We were to look at something under the microscope. And we were looking. I said we kept looking. SPEAKER_00: He said, so what's the problem? I said we can't see anything. SPEAKER_01: He looked at it and smiled and told us, look again. We looked. We looked. We're not seeing anything. SPEAKER_00: He now said something that was so instructive. He said, look with the eyes of experience. He now explained what we were seeing to us. We now picked up the our textbooks. We now saw the images. Actually, that was what we were seeing under the microscope, but we couldn't make it out, make anything out of it. So that's where experience comes to, you know. Experience, we can't do without it. We're leverage on it. So we have experienced hands who come into the training space and leverage on it. So what you were supposed to cover maybe in three years, experience will help you cover it in three months. If you're working with an experienced tutor or instructor, they take you through it, you know, and they show you the ropes and all of that. And I think we need them. I think it's a space. We need them, you know, those who have the capability to articulate thoughts, bring them down, and take them across. We need them. All right, guys. This is what we came to do on the show today. Uh, it is our way of letting you know that what you're doing is not out of place. You are doing the right thing. We're available on all social media platforms. Yes, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, even on LinkedIn that I started with. So go ahead. We also have uh uh a YouTube channel. Are you following us? Have you subscribed? Please do and hit that notification button so that when episodes like this drop, you'll be the first to know. This is the space where we come in to lean on one another's experience to forge a positive path. Once again, till I come your way again. My name is Amakri, Amakri Soboe. Bye for now.