Over 147 young people from Delta State have left for Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago for special training in technical vocations in the oil and gas sector, agriculture and hospitality industry under the sponsorship of the state government.

The students, accompanied by five chaperons and the Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Hope Eghagha, will undergo training in machine drilling, welding and fabrication, electrical rigging and many related fields in oil and gas sector. Fifty seven of the trainees will be in Trinidad which will host the oil and gas training programme that begins on December 8, 2014 and last for 10 months.

The remaining 90 trainees will proceed to Barbados for a series of orientation programmes that will last three weeks before the main training on the hospitality industry and agriculture begins in January 2015. The training programme was approved by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, governor of Delta State, under his human capacity development agenda.

The 57 people undergoing technical vocation training in the oil and gas industry form the initial batch of specialized manpower being prepared for the emerging opportunities in the oil and gas sector, especially with the envisaged multi-billion dollar Gas City project in Ogidigben where enormous technical manpower will be required.