Skills acquisition training a sequence of sustainable community development: Ugbobi Kingdom as an example

Abstract

Skills acquisition training that constitutes part of the sustainable community development, an initiative of the oil companies for their host communities in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, underscores the main thrust of this paper. The target is Ugbobi kingdom an Ekpeye community of about ten villages, located in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State. Here, two major multi-national oil companies, viz; Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) have their operational concessions also known as oil mining lease (OML). They have over the years introduced it to bolster their statutory responsibilities for their host communities. The dynamics of the discourse is grappled as the paper has posed a pertinent question that its answer remains critical for the study; it is; ‘is skills acquisition a panacea for sustainable community development’? It affirms that skills acquisition being integral of sustainable community development is key to the growth of any nation. It serves as a catalyst for employment generation and a requisite for self-reliance. Its introduction in Ugbobi Kingdom by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) by and large, is designed to equip her youths so to mitigate unemployment that has always resulted to restiveness. Alas, youths of the kingdom should be equipped with employable skills and knowledge for them to meet the increasing demand for technical cum vocational manpower needs amongst others. Thus, the imperatives of skills acquisition for sustainable community development.