Opito - The Oil and Gas Academy has welcomed the announcement that the UK government will provide a £270 million funding boost to increase skills in key sectors.

In his budget speech yesterday (March 25th), the chancellor announced new funding to increase the number of places available on university courses supporting growth in key areas of industry such as the oil and gas sector.

Opito chief executive David Doig commented: "The cost of this investment by the government will be repaid many times over in the coming years through a better skilled workforce."

However, he added that efforts must be taken to ensure that training and development programmes are specially selected to focus on providing practical experience that will be of real use to the 2,000 companies working in the UK oil and gas industry.

The decision to boost university places came in response to an unprecedented number of applications for the upcoming academic year.

Oil and Gas Directory: Training and Development