Fifty Guyanese youths graduate from TOTALTEC oil and gas training

-will gain immediate employment

From left are Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, CEO of TOTALTEC Lars Mangal, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and UK High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn at the press conference before the ceremony yesterday
From left are Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, CEO of TOTALTEC Lars Mangal, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and UK High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn at the press conference before the ceremony yesterday

Another 50 Guyanese youths yesterday graduated from TOTALTEC Oilfield Services training,   taking the total up to 250 since the company was birthed early last year and  prompting Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo to say it is the most “tangible manifestation” yet of local content in the industry.

Speaking at a press conference that was held before the graduation ceremony, CEO of TOTALTEC, Lars Mangal said that it was a momentous occasion for the industry since it is the first time that they would be seeing 50 students graduate.

“We’ve been able to accelerate since we started 15 months ago and with this academy to now have trained 250 Guyanese to join the industry successfully,” Mangal said, while noting that the 50 graduates would be employed immediately upon graduation.  He also said  that the success of the academy has exceeded his expectations of what they have been able to do and the impact they have had in the industry.  Also speaking at the press conference, PM Nagamootoo, whose government has been described by the Caribbean Court of Justice as having caretaker status,  congratulated Mangal for “contributing to the most tangible manifestation of local content in the oil and gas industry.”

Some of the 50 graduates yesterday along with members of the head table at the event

“This has been bandied about that we have no local content but 250 Guyanese being trained in new technology and being deployed simultaneously to productive, paying jobs shows that there are entrepreneurs, even in the academic field, who are committed to the industry [and] committed to the requirements of the industry,” Nagamootoo said

He added that the event also shows that persons displaced by the collapse of the sugar and bauxite industries have been able to find another industry to thrive in.

“And so you are producing a new breed of Guyanese intelligence here and this is to the credit of TOTALTEC and I am pleased to be associated, our government is pleased to be associated with this venture that you have now shown to all of our people that Guyana being El Dorado, or now being said the ‘Oil Dorado’ is not a dream and that we are not… unprepared, it is not true. We are getting there, we are preparing ourselves and I am sure we will be able to develop the mastery of other countries that have struck oil and to be our own people,” Nagamootoo said.

Also giving brief remarks, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman said that the country has exciting times ahead and the prospects are beyond imagination.

“I think we limit ourselves thinking or seeing what is before us and are sometimes afraid to look up ahead and onto the horizon where I believe our fortunes lie,” he said, while praising Mangal for taking an idea and turning it in something that is not mediocre but lifting and pursuing a standard that he believes will set the bar for all other similar academies in the future.  The United Kingdom’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn also gave brief remarks and noted that the event shows a very clear and tangible example of the benefits of the industry to Guyana and its citizens and that the industry and business here in Guyana is good for everyone.

The 50 students would have gone through a rigorous eight-week programme consisting of theoretical and practical learning. They completed nine courses covering 64 modules of Safety and Oil and Gas operational training and had to earn a pass mark of 85%, while being tested daily. The courses and instructors are provided by First Competence Ltd., an approved learning centre certified by the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA), which is a global awarding body that certifies training institutions to ensure their adherence and fulfilment of Scottish and UK quality standards.

TOTALTEC has also formed a strategic alliance with MATPAL Marine Institute, which provides International Maritime Organisation (IMO) certified training for seafarers. The company also said that they are focused on their future and their next steps are to develop the Academy into a world class campus spanning over three acres, offering a full curriculum of oil and gas training.

The company added that they also plan to develop significantly closer cooperation with the TVET Council and Technical institutes countrywide to ensure that their graduates can be well prepared for specialized roles in the industry.