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Expert advocates practical training for geology students

By Ujunwa Atueyi
02 September 2015   |   11:20 pm
To improve the quality of geologists in the country, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ehimade Nigeria Limited, Dr. Daniel Lambert-Aikhionbare has urged university teachers to make teaching of geology more practicable. Lambert-Aikhionbare who spoke at the presentation of geosciences equipment to select universities at an event held in Benin, Edo State, on behalf of Esso Exploration…
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To improve the quality of geologists in the country, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ehimade Nigeria Limited, Dr. Daniel Lambert-Aikhionbare has urged university teachers to make teaching of geology more practicable.

Lambert-Aikhionbare who spoke at the presentation of geosciences equipment to select universities at an event held in Benin, Edo State, on behalf of Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL), an affiliate of ExxonMobil, frowned at the quality of geology graduates and lecturers in some Nigerian universities.

He insisted that in addressing the precarious situation, training in the field of geology must be practical-based.

He said, “In the past, geology graduates were only trained for about six to nine months to become independent contributors, due to large exposure to practical trainings. But now, it takes about 36 to 46 months for graduates to get on their feet in geology.

“The reason EEPNL agreed to sponsor the University Partnering Programme (UPP) is that they know that like other multinationals, they are the end user of the products. So they want to reduce the number of months needed to train graduates so that we can have the quality students we used to have in the past.”

The donated items at the occasion include 54 petrographic microscopes and six sieve shakers/sieves valued at N35m.

EEPNL, Lambert-Aikhionbare said, has so far spent about N2b on the UPP, while about 14 universities across country have so far benefited from the programme.

“Ehimade Nigeria Limited is an organisation established for the purpose of training and retraining of lecturers and geosciences students across universities in Nigeria. And UPP was initiated to help the ailing education system to specifically provide a boost to geosciences education in Nigeria,” he added.

Institutions that benefitted in this year’s edition include, University of Ilorin; University of Jos; Federal University of Technology, Akure; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun and Akwa Ibom State University.

In his goodwill message, consulting geologist and Chief Executive Officer of Geoscan Technical Services Limited, Prof Cornelius Nwajide, stressed that “the best geologist is known during practical exercises, and the more practical he/she embarks on, the better he/she becomes.”

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