Building Guyana’s future energy workforce will require more than producing graduates. It will require identifying talent early, aligning university programs with industry needs, and creating pathways that move students from the classroom into technical and leadership roles.
That is the approach being pursued by the University of Guyana (UG) through its partnership with the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI) and ExxonMobil, according to Professor and former Vice Chancellor Dr Paloma Mohamed-Martin.
Mohamed Martin told OilNOW on July 10 that UG views industry support as part of a long-term workforce development strategy.
“We [University of Guyana] treat GGI and Exxon’s extensive support not as a set of standalone projects but as one continuous pipeline — and we are building every stage of it,” she said.
Discovery and acceleration
The pipeline begins with the Regional Accelerator for STEM Students Readiness (RASSR), which identifies promising students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from across Guyana’s 10 administrative regions.
Through the five-year program, UG works with 100 students selected from primary school to strengthen their STEM skills and prepare them for advanced education pathways.
At the tertiary level, Mohamed-Martin said UG is working to ensure programs remain aligned with the needs of Guyana’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
“When students arrive, they enter programs which are now being calibrated for industry. Our curricula are frequently reviewed and updated in collaboration with sector leaders such as Exxon, CNOOC, Hess, SBM Offshore, TechnipFMC, and Puffer; industry leaders sit on our advisory boards for all programs, and employer surveys and international benchmarking keep our graduates aligned with what is required,” the official explained.
Infrastructure and capacity
GGI support is also being used to expand UG’s capacity through infrastructure upgrades, including extended laboratories and a new Faculty of Engineering and Technology building.
The university’s priorities include “upgrading laboratories, hiring specialized faculty, expanding simulation tools and software, and rapidly building out its physical plant to accommodate the number of good students who apply.”
“Internships, site visits, mentoring with ExxonMobil and other companies, workshops and clinics for first-time job-seekers, and hands-on time with industry software in our labs and at government ministries all bridge the transition challenges graduates typically face,” Martin told OilNOW.
The leadership decade
Looking ahead, UG is preparing for the next stage of workforce development by expanding postgraduate opportunities in engineering and technology.
University of Guyana to expand port, marine, aviation education as oil and gas jobs grow | OilNOW
Mohamed Martin explained that over the next 10 years, industry investment will be directed to “sub-specialities like quantity surveying, oil and gas law, and negotiations”.
“That is the sustainable pipeline: identified at nine, accelerated through secondary school, trained to industry standard at UG or elsewhere, placed through UG Recruit [a job matching platform], and developed into the specialists and leaders who will run this sector,” she said.
GGI represents a US$100 million, 10-year investment by the Stabroek Block co-venturers – ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Hess Guyana Exploration Limited and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited – to support capacity building and economic diversification in Guyana.
