Guinness Empowers Engineers for Nigeria’s Power Sector
Guinness Nigeria has empowered the pioneer beneficiaries of its Graduate Skills Development Scholarship (GSDP), who have completed a one-year training programme at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria. The programme provides an opportunity for young engineering graduates to undergo a one-year training at the institute and on completion, they gain valuable skills they need to work for organisations that manage power generation, transmission and distribution.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony organised for the beneficiaries recently, the Corporate Relations Director, Guinness Nigeria PLC, Viola Graham-Douglas, said it partnered NAPTIN to provide a pool of resourceful, competent and versatile engineers who can deliver peerless technical services to further shore up the government’s transformation agenda in the power sector.
Having scaled through all hurdles in the course of their training and having demonstrated high technical and leadership competencies, she said it will help accelerate the graduands’ career progression.
She commended all the beneficiaries for putting in so much hard work to earn the certification. “You scaled through the competitive selection process for the scholarship; you excelled in the class-based component of the training and you successfully fulfilled the requirements of the job placement programme. Indeed, you should all be proud of your achievements.”
The Human Resources Director, Bola Olajomi-Otubu, urged all the NAPTINcertified engineers to take good advantage of their newly acquired skills to propel their careers, adding that if well utilised, the skills they have gained can enhance their technical know-how, improve productivity, and ultimately induce value-added production capacity. The acting Director-General of NAPTIN, Mr Ahmed Bolaji Nagode said, “the participation of Guinness Nigeria Plc is very noteworthy because the organisation is not a core player in the power business ecosystem.”
He said the organisation’s commitment to youth development is commendable as it provides an example worthy of emulation by other non-core power sector players.
The GSDP is one of three scholarship programmes the organisation leverages to equip Nigerian youths with the skills they need to build successful careers and enhance their livelihoods. Others are technical training scholarship, which offers young school leavers a unique opportunity to study at the prestigious Institute for Industrial Technology (IIT) and an undergraduate scholarship scheme, which supports undergraduates from its host communities studying in tertiary institutions.