BP today hosted an event in Baku to celebrate the first successful graduation of its petro-technical resource entry programme (PREP). This multi-million dollar learning programme is designed for national petro-technical graduates and is aimed at supporting capability development of young engineers joining BP.
PREP was launched last year with 55 graduates specializing in surface engineering, subsurface, and wells disciplines. They were selected as the first PREP trainees from among approximately one thousand applicants to petro-technical graduate positions announced by BP in 2011.
Some 45 of these trainees have now successfully completed the programme joining BP’s global Challenge Programme - the next step of their career development, and three of them have been hired to various specialist roles within BP.
BP has already hired 88 graduates from various national and international universities for PREP’s second year. They were selected from among approximately 3000 applicants.
Addressing the graduation ceremony held in the Marriott Hotel of Baku today Gordon Birrell, BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, said:” The results of PREP’s first year have been very successful. They have allowed us to hire a record number of Azerbaijani nationals into petro-technical Challenger roles in 2013. I am confident that with each year we will be able to hire and train more and more national petro-technical engineers. I am looking forward to PREP’s another successful year with the 88 selected trainees who wish to join BP for their career. BP is proud to have initiated this unique learning programme which allows Azerbaijani national graduates with strong technical background to start preparing themselves for joining BP family in Azerbaijan. I would like to congratulate all successful trainees and welcome them to BP.”
Recruitment to PREP is held annually within BP’s graduate recruitment plans and the programme starts each September spanning over the period of eleven months.
Notes to Editors
PREP is designed as an international-standard learning and development tool to train young Azerbaijani petro-technical graduates for successful career path within BP. This is in line with BP plans to increase the number of national graduates that the company recruits annually to support its business growth in the region.
The programme is a preliminary step for national graduate hires in their development from university graduation to long-term professional career at BP. Therefore PREP’s training programme is specifically designed to help petro-technical graduates deepen their technical knowledge, business awareness, and communication and English language skills. It is also designed as an arena for learning how to link these skills with practical application in the oil and gas industry.
The programme is delivered by Heriot-Watt University (UK), a leading and reputable international school for business and industry, and TTE-Petrofac (UK).
In addition to PREP, BP itself and jointly with its co-venturers has to date developed and operated many other successful learning tools to help professional development of national technical and petro-technical experts. These include the Caspian Technical Training Center (CTTC) located at the Sangachal Terminal and BP’s internal Challenge programme.
Speech by Gordon Birrell, BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey||
Tamam Bayatly, BP Baku Press office, telephone: 994 (0) 12 599 4557