Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.29
By - Trend:
BP today presented its bursary awards to a group of first and second year students specializing in petro-technical disciplines at a number of universities of Azerbaijan.
The project is part of BP's commitment to supporting educational development in the country and enhancing capacity-building in the oil and gas industry, the company told Trend.
BP's bursary awards for 2013 have been expanded from last year's five universities to cover two more higher educational institutions in Baku - the National Aviation Academy and the Azerbaijan Technical University, and one regional university - Ganja State University.
Some 60 best first-year students today received BP's annual bursary awards in an event held in Baku. These are students with the highest university admission scores pursuing education in oil and gas related studies at the following universities:
· The Azerbaijan State Oil Academy - 38 students;
· Qafqaz University - 6 students;
· The Azerbaijan Architecture and Construction University - 5 students;
· Baku State University - 5 students;
· Ganja State University - 3 students;
· Khazar University - 1 student;
· The National Aviation Academy - 1 student;
· The Azerbaijan Technical University - 1 student.
Today's bursary awards will provide these students with an opportunity to improve their technical English language skills through BP-funded 10-month training, which will be a valuable addition to their high-level technical knowledge. In addition, BP has decided to extend for another year the English-language training course for the previous year's 27- bursary winners who are currently second year students.
Addressing the award-presentation ceremony, Leyla Novruzova, BP's Vice- President, Human Resources, for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, said: "As Azerbaijan's reliable long-term partner, BP has a commitment to supporting the country's educational and capacity-building efforts, in particular in the oil and gas industry related areas.
"Azerbaijan traditionally has always had excellent petro-technical skills. However as the industry grows and develops there is a demand to further increase and improve local capabilities in related areas. BP, as the operator of Azerbaijan's major oil and gas projects, is very much interested in supporting initiatives and efforts that help the country to that end.
"I am pleased that along with other initiatives BP provides opportunities for many university students to prepare themselves for challenging careers in the oil and gas industry. I would like to congratulate all the 60 students on their bursary awards which I hope will support their plans for successful professional careers in national and international organisations".
In Azerbaijan, BP's bursary programme started in 2007 and to date BP has presented its bursary awards to about 400 top students.