Dear SPE Aberdeen members, colleagues and friends,
Our student membership is an integral part of our section and of the SPE – quite literally they are the future of our industry.
The section supports 5 student chapters in universities across Scotland (Aberdeen, RGU, Dundee, Heriot Watt and Strathclyde); our student members make up just over a quarter of our membership. The student chapters are involved in and organise a wide variety of activities all of which are supported by the section through the Student Development committee.
This committee consists of industry members, officers of the SPE Student Chapters and academic sponsors from the 5 universities registered under our section. The committee’s aim is to encourage all the students to pursue and develop a successful career in the oil & gas and energy industry. More details on the support they we provide to students are on our website.
The Student Bursary Awards are the highlight of the committee’s annual activity; this year the section awarded £20,000 through this scheme. Yet again the judges faced the challenge of selecting the winners from very high-quality applications. We are extremely proud that we have been able to continue running our student bursary programme throughout the downturn, ploughing our modest surplus funds back into the future of the industry.
We have helped organise a number of student field trips this year to facilities such as the St Fergus Gas Plant and Shell’s Mossmorran NGL plant. The students have also been busy taking part in the Petronomics competition, testing their knowledge on engineering, economics, and the industry in general, and also testing their football skills in Petroball! On an international level, the Heriot Watt student team has reached the finals of SPE PetroBowl – a worldwide industry quiz contest. This is a fantastic achievement and they are the only UK team to progress to the finals later this year at ATCE. SPE Aberdeen Section is part-sponsoring their trip to the finals – if your company can help sponsor this trip please contact me at aberdeen.chair@spe-uk.org
If you are interested in getting involved with the Student Development Committee and helping support our students please contact the committee chairs at SD.chair@spe-uk.org