Bureau Veritas reaffirms commitment to the future of the oil and gas industry with scholarship suppo
Bureau Veritas, a global leader in testing, inspection and certification (TIC) services, has confirmed its commitment to the North Sea oil and gas sector with the support of the scholarship program at Robert Gordon University (RGU). Despite the challenging trading environment, which has seen others unable to continue their sponsorship of scholarship students, Bureau Veritas has supported the program for the past five years and has reaffirmed its commitment to the industry by continuing this year. The scholarship is an opportunity for mechanical or electrical engineering students in second or third year at RGU to gain practical industry experience. Students are given a three month work placement over summer, during which time they will be working on real projects across different parts of the business. Paul Shrieve, Bureau Veritas Regional CEO North Sea Offshore Operations, said: “While the industry as a whole is experiencing challenges, it has always been important to Bureau Veritas to ensure that we continue to nurture talent and bring the right skills in to the sector. “Typically, our student’s first placement sees them working in a business support function, such as contracts, finance or business development, so they can gain an understanding of engineering in a business context. After this, the students are then part of one of Bureau Veritas’ busy engineering teams where they can put their knowledge and studies into practice on real projects. “We have a strong track record with our scholarship students, with the majority going on to be offered permanent roles and still employed with us today.” Charlie Stewart is one such student to have turned the Student Scholarship into a long term career opportunity. After impressing the Bureau Veritas team during his Scholarship placements, Charlie was last year offered a permanent role as a Graduate Design Verification Engineer. “I found the Bureau Veritas (RGU) Scholarship to be a very rewarding experience. It has it given me a direct pathway to full-time employment and the ability to put my education into practice with the benefit of a paid summer placement. As a result of RGU's course structure it also enabled me to reduce the length of my course as placements can be counted as modules. I would strongly recommend the scheme to all. It gives you an early introduction to the industry, great work experience and the prospect of securing a full-time role.” Professor John Steel, Head of RGU’s School of Engineering, added: “Scholarships are a mutually beneficial collaboration which often result in the students being rewarded for their hard work with a job after graduation, as has been the case with Bureau Veritas. “The University benefits in relation to delivery of our Fast Track MEng courses and further developing our strong links with industry for our professionally accredited degrees. Industry benefits from being able to review the students’ performance over a number of years and also in developing their future workforce planning. “Scholarship students graduating from our Fast Track MEng courses are able to deliver productive work immediately on starting their job with Bureau Veritas. “In the current economic climate, it is very pleasing to see that Bureau Veritas has kept up the scheme and is continuing to invest in the development of skilled engineers coming through RGU’s MEng programme. “We look forward to continuing this relationship and working with Bureau Veritas to cultivate future talent.”
