The National Council For Higher Education (NCHE) has approved the oil and gas curriculum which is to be followed by the Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba (UPIK) starting August.

The approval followed UPIK receiving an international certification giving it the green light to start offering oil and gas courses.

Mr Alex Kakooza, the Ministry of Education and Sports permanent secretary, on Friday said the UK company City and Guild has given the institute the green light to offer internationally recognised courses in the oil sector.

“Our students, whom we are yet to train in this institute, will be internationally recognised and I am optimistic that they will be considered when oil production starts,” he said.

The principal of UPIK, Mr Bernard Ongodia, said the five programmes which have been approved, will equip students to conduct routine maintenance of diesel engines, among other operations in the sector.

The five courses include Upstream Petroleum Operations, Downstream Operations, Electrical Maintaince, Mechanical Maintenance and Instrumentation.

Mr Ongodia said the training kicks off in August since they were waiting for their curriculum to be approved before they start.

He added that the process of procuring and identifying the infrastructure for the institute to reach the international standard is underway.

“We shall expect the government to recruit our own as opposed to importing experts from abroad to work in our sector. We are targeting a number of about 200 students and the number will be expected to keep growing,” Mr Ongodia said.

“The first batch of students will be taught by tutors from France and after three years, Ugandans who will attain qualifications from the institute will take over the training and will start training their other colleagues since they will also be having international recognised certificates,” the vice president of IFP Training, which provides training in oil and gas, Mr Olivier Silaire, said.