The purpose of the Centre is to establish a centre of excellence for training welders, fabrication engineers and trainers with a governance structure to sustain medium sized enterprises (SMEs) capacity building and accreditation. The Stakeholders are the Norwegian Agency for Development (Norad), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Norwegian Oil and Gas Partners (INTSOK), the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the Norwegian Oil and Gas Company (StatoilHydro) with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as the implementing agency and Det Norske Veritas (DnV) as technical partner and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) as the hosting institution.
The Centre is a direct result of the “Enhancing the Fabrication Capabilities in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry” (EFCN) program, which was initiated in 2006 through cooperation and partnership agreements between the above mentioned Nigerian/Norwegian partners. This program aims to upgrade fabrication skills and capabilities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The main objectives of the Centre are:
· To meet the coded welders’ training needs of the EFCN Program
· To provide a centre of excellence for delivering internationally certified training programs in fabrication and allied fields for capacity building
· To enhance fabrication capability and skills development of SMEs to meet international standards and enable them execute larger, multi-discipline fabrication projects.
· To facilitate high level fabrication capacity (manpower and facilities) development through an internationally certified centre which would enable SMEs implement ISO standards.