| The petroleum industry plays a pivotal role in Nigeria's economy. There is also a recognition that petroleum industry trainer competence is a key variable in promoting the industry's workforce productivity. Even so, little systematic research has to date been identified that investigated the expertise level of petroleum industry trainers in Nigeria. This research was designed to fill this void.;Respondents' current level of perceived expertise was found to be: (1) For generic skill--presentation skill, writing skill, and coaching skill; (2) For domain skill--petroleum geology, seismic data interpretation, and petroleum reservoir geology for the exploration subcategory. Respondents' perceived level of current importance of competencies was: (1) For generic skill--project management skill, coaching skill, and feedback skill; (2) For domain skill--seismic data interpretation, and occupational safety for the exploration, and occupational health and safety subcategories, respectively. Perceived level of future importance of competencies was: (1) For generic skill--business understanding, general work analysis, and objectives preparation skill; (2) For domain skill--seismic data processing and analysis, and petroleum reservoir geology for exploration; and secondary recovery of petroleum, and advanced well-logging and correlations for drilling and production.;Recommendation for application: In-service education and training should focus on areas of high importance for which respondents perceived themselves to have low levels of expertise both currently and for the future.;The research used a descriptive method. The target population consisted of 48 petroleum industry trainers and professionals, including all ten trainers in a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation subsidiary and eight trainers in a large Nigerian-based multinational oil corporation. A three-part survey questionnaire was constructed, comprising 36 generic skill competencies in Section I, 172 domain skill competencies in Section II, and 17 demographic questions in Section III. Section I included 35 generic competencies identified in the 1989 ASTD competency study. Sections II and III were developed de novo, Section II comprising six subsections: exploration; drilling and production; refining and processing; occupational health and safety; transportation, distribution, and pipeline technology; and African history and culture. Validity and reliability tests were conducted with Cronbach's alphas ranging from.75 to.98. Trainer-administered survey response rate is 89%. |
