At the end of August seventeen ExxonMobil trainees graduated in a ceremony held at the Kumul Petroleum Academy at Idubada. The trainees had completed a one-year full time course and achieved City and Guilds certification in their studied discipline. Eleven trainees received their certificate in plant process operation and six with certification as instrument maintenance technicians; four of the seventeen trainees were female.
The graduation featured speeches from guest speakers – ExxonMobil Upstream Asset Manager Mr. Breton Macdonald, and Kumul Petroleum Holdings senior manager, Mr. Sikke Jan Wynia, along with several trainees and the KPA manager.
Echoing the sentiments of other speakers, Mr. Sikke Jan Wynia congratulated the trainees on their completion of studies, saying,”Kumul Petroleum is proud to have sponsored KPA for almost 10 years, enhancing the capabilities of the petroleum industry workforce, including the seventeen graduates today from the 8th Junior Operations and Maintenance Staff Course.”
Mr Wynia noted that Kumul Petroleum was constructing a new training facility in Caution Bay, which will provide even better facilities and allow provision of additional courses, to increase the technical standards of Papua New Guinea’s national industrial employees.
Guests at the graduation included family and friends of the graduates, ExxonMobil personnel and the staff at KPA, who were also entertained with a Motuan music and dance troupe.
The graduates are the 9th cohort to go through KPA. City and Guilds are a United Kingdom awarding body in skills development. The training involved basic understanding of the oil and gas Industry, safety training, underpinning knowledge in their destined discipline, practical on the job training and coaching in the well-equipped workshops and the Safe Live Process Plant installed at KPA’s Idubada campus.
Since its inception in 2016, 186 trainees sponsored by ExxonMobil, Oil Search, Santos and Kumul Petroleum Holdings have graduated from KPA, which has a three year contract with Santos to provide training and is currently awaiting the next, 10th, cohort of ExxonMobil sponsored trainees in the coming weeks.
