One of the most ambitious scholarship schemes ever put together in Scotland for the oil&gas sector is poised for launch by global engineering and consultancy group Poyry.
No less than £140,000 of financial support over five years (2009-13) is to be provided for students at five Scottish universities, plus Banff and Buchan College.
Universities woven into the programme comprise Aberdeen and The Robert Gordon universities in Europe’s energy capital, plus Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt in the Scottish capital and Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde. The scholarships will be given to a range of engineering and business management students, which Poyry believes underlines its core offerings to the upstream oil&gas sector.
Michail Tzouvelekis, stakeholder relationship manager at Poyry Energy (Aberdeen), told Energy that the plan is to support at least 35 scholars until 2016, when the last of them graduate.
“We believe in nurturing and supporting young talent, those who will be the leaders of tomorrow,” he said.
“As part of our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen in Scotland, we are also regularly supporting young athletes, and we plan to expand our sponsorship activities in the years to come.”
The Poyry Engineering Scholarships are available for the following Master’s programmes:
University of Aberdeen: MEng Chemical Engineering; MEng Mechanical and Electrical Engineering with Energy Studies, and MEng Mechanical Engineering with Control.
University of Edinburgh: MEng Chemical Engineering and MEng Chemical Engineering with Environmental Engineering.
Heriot-Watt University: MEng Chemical Engineering; MEng Chemical Engineering with Energy Engineering, and MEng Chemical Engineering with Oil & Gas Technology.
University of Strathclyde: MEng Chemical Engineering.
Poyry Engineering Scholarships are open to all third-year students of the above courses engaged in full-time study in these institutions. They offer £2,000 per year for each remaining year of the course (that is, in years three, four and five). Successful scholars may have the additional benefit of being eligible to apply for a paid placement at Poyry.
In addition, Poyry has created a suite of Fiona Fuller Business Scholarships covering first-degree management programmes at The Robert Gordon University – Aberdeen Business School.
They comprise:
BA (Hons) Management.
BA (Hons) Management with Economics.
BA(Hons) Management with Finance.
BA (Hons) Management with Human Resource Management.
BA (Hons) Management with Marketing.
BA (Hons) International Business.
Recognising the important role that Banff and Buchan College plays in educating young people keen to get into the North Sea offshore industry, scholarships covering its HND Business are being made available.
At RGU, the Fiona Fuller Business Scholarship is open to all third-year students of the above courses engaged in full-time study and offers £1,000 in the third and £2,000 in the fourth year of their course (that is, the final two years).
“The business side of the programme is named after and dedicated to the memory of our colleague, Fiona Fuller, who passed away suddenly last year at the age of 37,” said Tzouvelekis.
“Fiona spent her RGU third-year industrial placement with what was then IGL Engineering, a company that had been a start-up in 1989, and returned after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Commerce with Distinction in 1993.
“Following the acquisition of IGL by Poyry Energy in 2006, Fiona was responsible for the integration of IGL’s global businesses with the Poyry Group, which she completed in 2007.”
At Banff and Buchan College, scholarships are open to all full-time second-year students of the above course and offer £500.
Poyry is headquartered in Finland and has been listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange since 1997. The group is active in five industry sectors: energy; forest industry; transportation; water and environment, and construction services.
Its Aberdeen office employs more than 60 people and is part of a 500-strong international team of consultants. It specialises in providing multi-discipline engineering and focuses on three key areas: consultancy, development engineering services and production operations support.