Focus on training at Oil & Gas Africa 2016
PRESS OFFICE: Exhibition Management Services
Africa faces a major challenge to meet the growing demand for skilled technicians in both the African maritime and oil and gas industries. These sectors offer unlimited career opportunities for an eager younger generation with the requisite skills acquired by incentivised training through relevant SETAs.
Industry-focused training will be in the spotlight at this year’s Cape Industries Showcase (CIS), a five-in-one industrial expo which incorporates the well-known exhibitions Oil & Gas Africa and Maritime Offshore and Marine Africa. These exhibitions provide the ideal platform to bring together the relevant industry role-players and associated training institutions to address the skills deficit. CIS takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 13 to 15 July 2016.
“In order to help alleviate the technical skills shortages in the oil/gas and maritime industries, we are offering education and training institutions a substantial discount on exhibition stands at this year’s event,” says John Thomson of Exhibition Management Services, organisers of CIS.
“The focus on training at CIS will provide a useful networking platform for employers, government, training organisations and other stakeholders to promote training and skills development, and recruit candidates for training in the maritime and oil and gas industries.”
South African blue economy potential
“South Africa has over 3,000 km of coastline, potentially offering massive economic opportunities, from maritime ports and transportation, manufacturing, tourism and fishing to aquaculture, energy, and oil and gas exploration,” says Thomson. “South Africa’s blue economy is woefully under- exploited. These opportunities need to be leveraged to boost development and reduce unemployment, and training is a major component of this process.”
Chris Brown is a director of Cape Town-based Professional Oilfield Supply, which facilitates various world-class training courses for the development of competent petroleum professionals in Africa. The company is heavily involved in Instrumentation and Control Systems training projects in South Korea, Angola, Nigeria, South Africa and Mozambique. Professional Oilfield Supply will be exhibiting at the Oil & Gas Africa expo in July this year – (Stand F4, Hall 2). Visit www.oilfieldsupply.co.za for more information.
“Urgent action is needed to scale up the rate of training in these sectors,” says Brown. “We are starting to see growing demand from international oil and gas companies operating in East and West Africa for skilled South African engineers, technicians and managers.”
According to Brown, the key skills required in the industry include technical ability, people management, sales and business development, and safety.
Support from training organisations
“The Oil & Gas Africa training focus ties in to important projects such as Operation Phakisa, a government initiative intended to unlock the full potential of South Africa’s ocean economy,” says Thomson. “This could eventually create up to one million jobs and contribute over R177bn to the GDP by 2033.”
The training focus of this year’s Oil & Gas Africa and Maritime & Offshore Marine Africa exhibitions is gaining considerable support from a number of education and training organisations which have already booked exhibition stands.
The Cape Industries Showcase (CIS) combines the Oil & Gas Africa Expo, the Maritime & Offshore Marine Africa Expo, the Cape Logistics expo, the Refrigeration and Airconditioning Expo and the Empowertec Cape SME Expo in one co-located event at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, from 13 to 15 July 2016. The previous edition of CIS in 2014 attracted exhibitors from 13 countries and visitors from 29 countries.
For more Information on Maritime & Offshore Marine Africa, contact Linda Kaufman at Exhibition Management Services.
Tel: +27 11 783 7250.
E-mail: [email protected].
Website: www.exhibitionsafrica.com
About Exhibition Management Services
South Africa-based Exhibition Management Services (EMS) is one of the longest established event organisers in the country and is the only events company on the continent with years of experience in delivering Pan African exhibition programmes.
With nearly 30 years of networking in Africa, EMS’s database is unique in the industry and enables the unrivalled identification, notification and participation of qualified international trade visitors to its events.