Tullow Ghana Limited, Science Technical Engineering and Maths (STEM) is an initiative which focuses on students, to encourage them to consider STEM education as a viable choice for future career decisions, and includes interventions for kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions. Funded by Tullow Ghana Limited(TGL), among one of Ghana’s growing oil and gas sector industry, Tullow STEM project initiative also include capacity building for teachers, rehabilitation of science laboratory,other infrastructure, and scholarships to tertiary students. The company has partnered with Ashesi University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology and the University of Ghana, to award scholarships to develop and build the capacity of young Ghanaians to take up careers in science, engineering and technical fields.
To give true meaning to Tullow’s bid to drive its STEM initiative, TGL sponsored the Sci-Tech fair which started in 2017 as part of the activities for the festival targeted at basic and senior high school students. The fair gave an opportunity to students to showcase their science projects.
With Tullow as sponsers of the fair, the company earlier last month hosted semi-finalists from the 2018 edition of the National Science & Maths Quiz (NSMQ) to a tour of its offices. The visit to TGL’s offices in Accra was part of the 25th anniversary of the NSMQ festival in Ghana. The aim was to educate the students on its operations as oil and gas is concerned. The students include Prempeh College, Mfantsipim School, Mawuli School, Keta SHS, Krobo Girls SHS and Ghana National College. Also, the visit was to provide the science students with more insight into the varied career opportunities available to them in the oil and gas industry beyond the traditional career choices.
On a day’s visit by the NSMQ semi-finalists, which saw a two-part programme included presentations on Tullow’s operations and work shadowing of TGL staff to see what they do daily. This gave them an opportunity to engage with some of the technical staff and have a practical experience of their job.
Addressing the students and their teachers at the completion of the tour of Director for External Affairs and Social Performance, Cynthia Lumor, congratulated the students for reaching the semi-final stage of the competition as she also stated the aim for supporting the NSMQ festival. “as a platinum sponsor aligned with the company’s long-term vision to support the development of world class Ghanaian professionals for the development of Ghana’s growing oil and gas sector and other industries, it is for this reason that the company socio-economic investments have been refocused on capacity building through STEM education from the basic to tertiary level”, she said.
One of the students remarked how the meeting with one of the teams was good to see how those in Ghana work with their other colleagues in the London officedone on how things are being done in the oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, the NSMQ semi-finalists group of 20 students and their teachers expressed gratitude to TGL for the opportunity to visit the company’s offices and expressed their wish for another opportunity to engage with staff in the near future.
This year’s 2018 NSMQ quiz competition ended with St. Peters Senior High School as winners of the grand finale beating West Africa Secondary School and Adisadel College.
Prince Schroeder (Intern)
