Total prepares 540 youths on self-paid careers

Some 540 Nigerian youths are right now being transformed by Total into self-paid career status capable of leading the new army of entrepreneurs with world-class backgrounds.

Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, which is embarking on this venture, unveiled the scheme at the UK’s Highbury College-backed Workmanship and Technical Training Centre (WTTC) in the Rivers State Polytechnic (RivPoly) in Bori.

Unveiling the strategic scheme, the Total’s deputy general manager, Sustainable Development, Cyprian Ojum, said the oil multinational was keen on developing a new army of skilled entrepreneurs as a new stage in the effort to transform the oil communities by empowering them instead of just giving them handouts.

He said the 540 youths were being trained in some of the best centres in the land and would be given starter packs and funding for one-year rent. While at training, Ojum said the trainees would be sustained on allowances for transport and upkeep so as to concentrate on the training expected to make them the best anywhere.

Only 64 of the 540 are being trained at the WTTC established by the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) where the best skills are available for willing youths and to mentors seeking a unique career for their wards.

Ojum said he was excited when he inspected the WTTC and saw an array of world-class facilities and instructors that could turn out the best of minds. He said the 64 candidates were just a taste of the pudding but that the next batch would be an avalanche of trainees.

The deputy general manage urged the trainees to aim for 100 percent in learning, saying because it was about work of hand in a technical field, anything not well learnt could spell disaster or even take lives. He boasted that a Total-trained fashion designer had just emerged the best in Africa at a fashion show, saying the company was grooming the best in the world.

The WTTC centre manager, Armstrong Amorro, warned that it was time to build human facilities instead of halls and physical infrastructure, saying those made from this scheme could build any infrastructure.

RSSDA’s general manager, business development, Blessing Daniel-Kalio, warned the trainees not to waste the chance as a right, saying the prodigal son wasted both a right and a chance. She assured that the WTTC was going to give them the best available anywhere ever, and pointed out that most technical proficient persons earned higher than their white-collar colleagues.

Ignatius Chukwu