The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) has called for the digitisation of University Curriculum to meetup with current trends and new innovations in the education sector.
NAPE, the umbrella association for persons in the professional application of geosciences and other related disciplines to the exploration and production of oil and gas in the country said the digitisation of curriculum was necessary especially for the teaching and learning of geosciences.
The group also canvassed collaboration between university and industry, as it stressed the need for the academia to align their research and development activities to suit industry needs.
Addressing journalists at a virtual conference at the end of its 15th NAPE-University Assistance Programme (UAP) leadership forum, themed: “Bridging the industry-academia gap: Consolidating the gains of the past and projecting into the future,” NAPE decried the lack of high-quality workforce needed for the country’s energy transition, saying it has been a nagging concern for the industry and the academia over the years.
NAPE stated that the forum was conceived to provide a platform and ambience for students studying the geosciences in Nigerian tertiary institutions for the exchange of technical knowledge, exhibition of new technologies and industry/ academia collaboration.
The President, NAPE, Dr James Edet, alongside the Publicity Secretary, Tunbosun Afolayan, stressed the need to bridge the gap between the old and new generations of workforce in areas of grounded knowledge, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and innovations to avoid knowledge loss and stimulate energy growth.
“The lack of high-quality workforce needed for Nigeria’s energy transition has been a nagging concern for the industry and the academia. The situation is further exacerbated by talent flight and high level of competition for the relatively few skilled and well-trained professionals.”
The group which tasked universities on the need to work closely with the industry in a mutual and symbiotic manner, where values are created on both sides, also reiterated the university-industry collaboration in research and development, current trends and emerging technologies for solution-driven challenges.
”There is need to provide basic upstream geoscience and reservoir management and operations geology training platforms for internship with the intent of building local human capacity for future use and good succession plans. We need to build our society and stop capital and knowledge flight”
“There is need for universities and industries to collaborate on special project that would add value to the academia and industry by way of SIWES and Internship programmes where teamwork and business goals can be reached”.