Baku, November 13, AZERTAC

BP and its co-venturers in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects - SOCAR, TPAO, PETRONAS, MOL, LUKOIL, NICO, Equinor, INPEX, ExxonMobil, SGC, ITOCHU, ONGC, TOTAL and Eni today announced they were joining the IBA Tech Academy initiative by funding the training of 200 Azerbaijani citizens jointly with the International Bank of Azerbaijan. The project is in support of training the new generation of digital workforce for the country and is part of BP and its co-venturers’ commitment to helping enhance overall capacity-building in Azerbaijan.

IBA Tech Academy is an educational programme initiated by the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA). It focuses on developing IT skills, overall technological knowledge and capabilities in all sectors of the economy. The project aims to support the development of the local IT market fostering the new generation of professionals who would think innovatively, lead efforts towards the technology of the future and be part of technological breakthroughs.

The programme was launched last year aiming to train annually around 100 Azerbaijani citizens representing all sectors of social and economic development. With BP and its co-venturers’ support this year the number of participants in the programme will double.

Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, BP’s Vice president Middle East and Caspian, Communications and Advocacy, said: ”We believe fostering digital workforce is a direct contribution to the social and economic development of the country. We also see this as major support for the efforts to improve effectiveness of public services. With the current challenges and the fast changes the world is undergoing there’s increasing demand for technology experts who would easily deal with the emerging new technologies. We welcome IBA’s initiative to help develop the new generation of technologically skilled, knowledgeable and capable workforce who would add to the country’s capacity to make a smooth transition to the technology of the future.

BP and its co-venturers have been supporting capacity-building efforts of the country for 27 years and we remain committed to continuing to invest in the education and development of highly qualified Azerbaijani nationals.”

Abbas Ibrahimov, Chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan Management Board said: “The IBA Tech Academy created by our bank last year is reaching its goals, adding to the number of professional IT experts in the local labour market. BP and its co-venturers’ interest in this programme and their support are a clear indication of the importance of the project as well as this opens up new prospects for the Academy’s future. It is our people who will benefit most from the joint effort and cooperation of the two major business entities - BP and its co-venturers, and IBA.”

IBA Tech Academy is based on the methodology developed by the centre for training of IT professionals “DAN IT education”. The education programme is based on the Israeli method for training IT-personnel - Telem. Currently the Academy provides immersive bootcamp programmes covering main areas of coding.

The duration of the project is 12 months with the value of 400,000 AZN of which 200,000 AZN is BP and co-venturers’ contribution and the remaining 200,000 AZN will be funded by IBA.

For more information about IBA Tech Academy please visit www.ibatech.az