Total Initiative programme train 26 Nigerians in different skills

Total, leading international oil company, a world-class operator in gas and petrochemicals with operations in more than 130 countries. In response to rising energy demand, the Group is stepping up its growth in solar energy and biomass.

Total’s Nigerian upstream companies are adding remarkable value to higher education development in Nigeria through an innovative teaching improvement initiative in partnership with the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

This corporate social responsibility programme entitled “Empowering the Teachers”, was launched in 2011 in collaboration with the MIT Faculty. The programme is aimed at supporting Nigeria’s educational development by offering a rich capacity development platform for young exceptional science and engineering university lecturers.

Under the programme, outstanding young Fellows from Nigerian universities in the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science are selected and sent to MIT for one semester under Total’s sponsorship. Those selected observe instructions and work with various professors in their disciplines to prepare broad and innovative curricula and approaches to teaching methods that can be introduced into their home universities on return. They also participate in and observe classes, seminar meetings on a weekly basis during the four-month Fellowship at MIT. The programme is offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) in partnership with Total, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Total’s other partners in Nigeria.

So far 26 Nigerian Academics have benefited from the programme since the pilot phase in 2011 with nine additional Fellows going to MIT this academic year. Being the first of its kind in Nigeria, the initiative presents a bold step towards helping bridge observed teaching gaps in institutions of higher learning in Nigeria.

“Before I went to MIT we taught programming with basic language, but when I came back from MIT, I introduced a new language known as the python programming language. This has greatly impacted the lives of my students and other lecturers” says Dr Nuka Nwaibu from the Rivers State University of Science & Technology, one of the participants in the Fall of 2013.

About ten years ago, Total also established the Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS) at the University of Port Harcourt in collaboration with another world renowned institution, the French Petroleum Institute (IFP) Paris, to help the country develop high level technical manpower required in the oil and gas industry.

Total’s Nigerian upstream companies in partnership with NNPC and other partners, continue to set the pace in CSR initiatives that improve the capacity of Nigerians to contribute to national development.