SPDC awards postgraduate scholarship to 10 students
The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), on Thursday, awarded postgraduate scholarships to 10 students from its host communities (Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states) to study in the UK.
The beneficiaries would study courses relating to oil and gas at the Imperial College, London; University of Leeds and the University College, London.
The scholarship scheme was initiated to improve partnership with government in tertiary education and boost manpower development in Nigeria.
SPDC awards postgraduate scholarship to 10 students
Tony Attah, SPDC’s Vice President, Sustainable Development/Community Relations and Communications, at the award/farewell ceremony for the 2012 beneficiaries in Yenagoa, said that one person from Bayelsa passed the rigorous selection process for the award, six from Delta and three from Rivers,
Attah noted that the company had so far awarded 30 scholarships, adding: This award ceremony is the third edition. We are delighted to have two women out of 10 beneficiaries. Last year, we had only two ladies also, one of whom was a Bayelsa State indigene.
“This underscores SPDC’s deliberate consideration for Bayelsa and the reason why we have chosen to hold this year’s ceremony in the Niger Delta University in Bayelsa.”
Represented by Funkapo Fufoyin, the Government and Community Relations Manager, Attah said the choice of Bayelsa was to motivate students in the state to study harder and compete for places in the scholarship scheme.
“We are optimistic that our visit would publicise this scheme to the academic community, final year engineering students, parents, guardians and education policy makers,” he said.
“We, therefore, urged all students to take advantage of this scheme, which is available at the websites of the three aforementioned UK universities.”
He assured that beneficiaries who distinguished themselves in their courses of study would be offered automatic employment by the company.
The Secretary to the Bayesa State Government, Prof. Edmund Allison-Oguru, commended SPDC for its gesture and urged other oil companies to emulate it.
He charged the beneficiaries to take their studies seriously and be good ambassadors of their respective states.