Mr King A. Wellington, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Energy, speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said the project seeks to sensitise female students on the fundamentals of Ghana’s Energy sector with the key focus on the petroleum industry.

He noted that the first leg of the sensitisation programme took off on Monday at the Nkronful SHS in the Western Region. Mr Wellington said to ensure a comprehensive exercise, the selected SHSs across the 10 regions of the country had been grouped into four zones and a minimum of 10 schools were expected to be visited in each region.

Zone one comprise of; Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions, Zone Two is made of;  Central and Western Regions, while Zone Three covered Northern, Upper West and Upper East Regions; whereas Zone Four was made of the Greater Accra, Volta and Eastern Regions

Other schools in the Western Region to be covered include;  Kikam, Nsein and Porter Girls SHSs, while the Central Region participating schools include; Ghana National, Wesley Girls, Holy Child and Mfantsiman Girls.

Participating schools in the Volta Region are Ola Girls, Mawuli School, Keta Secondary and Angloga SHSs.He said the Team would also provide students with career guidance and employment opportunities in the industry. Mr Wellington said the project was part of the Ministry’s Gender Mainstreaming in the Energy Sector Project which was aimed at increasing female participation in Ghana’s Energy Sector.

He said the first phase of the project focused on a sensitisation and career guidance programme in the Petroleum and power sector at Senior High Schools across the country.  He noted that the sensitisation programme took the form of fora across selected SHSs preferably female SHS in the 10 Regions. He explained that it was to whip up enthusiasm of female students and encourage them to choose courses relevant to the industry at the tertiary level.

He said research showed that 22.8 per cent of the work force in the oil and gas sector was females, which was a matter of greater concern to the Ministry.   He said the project had been designed to give the students a good knowledge about the energy sector. Mr Michael Tawiah, Team Lead, Local Content Unit, Ministry of Energy said the Team was running the students in fundamentals in petroleum and the power sectors.

He explained that they were exposing the students to job prospects in both the petroleum and the power sector.