Baku, July 25, AZERTAC

bp and its co-venturers in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects - SOCAR, TPAO, LUKOIL, NICO, MOL, Equinor, SGC, INPEX, ExxonMobil, ITOCHU, TotalEnergies, Eni, ONGCVidesh - have successfully completed the ABB Tech Academy project, which they joined in 2020, bp told AZERTAC.

The project trained and developed a total of 208 people from all sectors of the economy enhancing their IT skills, overall technological knowledge and capabilities and enabling them to keep up with the fast-changing technology world. Of the 208 participants, the training of 150 was funded jointly by bp and its co-venturers and ABB.

Over the duration of the project, a total of nine streams were offered to the participants who represented more than 50 local and international organizations including ABB and various universities such as the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Baku Engineering University, Baku Higher Oil School, UNEC, etc.

Initiated by ABB, the project aimed 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.

An event was held in Baku on 22 July to celebrate the successful completion of the project and wish all graduates success as they join the community of technology professionals in the country.

Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, bp’s vice president for the Caspian region, Communications and External Affairs, said: “This project has been one of our favourite ones as it is strictly in line with bp’s and its co-venturers’ commitment to helping enhance overall capacity-building in Azerbaijan. It is also aligned with bp’s own digital transformation efforts. In bp, innovation and digital solutions are at the heart of everything we do to advance our net zero goals and our transition to an integrated energy company.

“We would like to thank ABB for the opportunity to join their great initiative which we believe will help the country meet its demand for high quality digital technology experts supporting its efforts to achieve its sustainability goals.”

Abbas Ibrahimov, Chairman of the Management Board of ABB, said: “With our support for the training of highly qualified specialists for our country, we try to contribute to the development of our society and show loyalty to our corporate values.

“ABB Tech Academy will be one of the projects that ABB will always be proud for. Because this academy has become the beginning of the path of success of hundreds of young people of Azerbaijan. Here, professional personnel are trained and introduced to the labour market for the needs of rapidly digitalizing business. Together with our partners, we make educational opportunities here available for all our talented young people. I express our gratitude to bp and its co-venturers for contributing special value to this project with their participation.”

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

The total value of the project with the involvement of bp and its co-venturers was 400,000 AZN ($235,300) of which 200,000 AZN was bp and its co-venturers’ contribution and the remaining 200,000 AZN was funded by ABB.