Univation: Scottish education tailored for the 21st century

There’s a distinctly Latin American atmosphere in the centre of Aberdeen these days, as 61 Venezuelan students from the country’s national oil company PDVSA settle down to an intensive 14-month educational and professional training programme based in the North East which will equip them to play a key role in the future development of their oil-rich country.

The contract, which is worth over £5 million, was negotiated by Univation Ltd, the commercial arm of The Robert Gordon University (RGU) and awarded to RGU by PDVSA earlier this year. The PDVSA programme has been specially tailored for the Venezuelan market, and will see 250 students come to Aberdeen to study during the next five years.

The programme comprises integrated English language training, a specialist oil and gas Masters degree course at RGU, and a series of two-day professional development masterclasses in key management areas like sustainable development, environmental management, networking and team management, project management and corporate social responsibility.

A hunger for knowledge

The Venezuelan contract follows hard on the heels of an equally high-profile programme awarded during the summer for tailored technical education and training for delegates from PetroChina, the largest company in Asia.

Ian Campbell, managing director of Univation in Aberdeen There should be significant long-term benefits to the Aberdeen oil service community from such programmes, as Univation managing director Ian Campbell (right) explains.

“The PetroChina delegates in particular wanted to augment their formal training with informal knowledge transfer from our leading service companies, so we arranged a series of industrial visits where companies like Vetco Gray, Subsea 7 and Baker Oil Tools can present their North Sea experience and discuss how it can be shared on a global basis. This obviously can create real business opportunities for these Aberdeen companies.

“Having this sort of engagement with our local oil community may prove highly productive in the medium- and long-term - some of these delegates are returning to take up very senior positions within their national oil companies.”

“They have a real hunger for knowledge in areas like deepwater drilling where there is less resident expertise back home, and by fostering these links I believe we are proactively introducing potentially huge international supply chain opportunities for the future.”

Flexible delivery

Founded in 1995, Univation has a unique pool of multi-disciplinary talent at its disposal – over 500 RGU academic staff and a network of long-term professional associates in other educational establishments and the private and public sectors.

The emphasis is very much on the innovative tailoring of academic courses and educational programmes to ensure they are completely industry-relevant. This often calls for the imaginative use of delivery technologies to ensure flexibility and effectiveness - programmes can be a combination of Aberdeen-based modules, on-line learning and in-country workshops.

“Although the international oil and gas training market is highly competitive, we are uniquely placed to delve into our staff pool and assemble dedicated teams who are capable of developing and delivering programmes which are tailored to the specific needs of our national and international clients,” notes Ian Campbell.

“By building on RGU’s strong global reputation for practical, industry-relevant tertiary education, Univation is able to achieve positive differentiation from the many other very good training providers in the international market but who have a less impressive academic pedigree.”

“Having such a highly respected academic track record gives us valuable credibility, especially in countries where tertiary education in engineering and related disciplines is less well developed. It also helps hugely that RGU has been independently ranked as the top university in Scotland for graduate employment.”

In-market knowledge

Since 1995, Univation’s international market penetration has been classic oilfield stuff – Algeria, Libya, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Russia. This year, the company already has 130 overseas students studying at RGU, on top of significant numbers of UK trainees attending short courses and programmes.

But the company is now poised to extend its global reach to areas such as the Middle East, South America, China and Angola, having re-structured its international sales force to comprise seven regional business development managers, each with a distinct international territory.

These managers have been recruited largely on the basis of their specific in-market knowledge and expertise. Regional manager for Latin America, Graeme Slaven, for example spent six months on secondment to UK Trade & Investment at the British Embassy in Caracas in Venezuela, developing trade opportunities for UK companies and, in the process, establishing a first-rate contacts network in one of Latin America’s most active energy markets.

Along the way, Univation has also made extensive use of other export support and development programmes. Ian Campbell praises Scottish Enterprise’s Global Companies Development Programme (GCDP), a practical initiative which is designed to enable companies that are strategically controlled from Scotland to achieve a significant global presence through having in place a robust strategic focus.

The company has also regularly used the market information services of UK Trade & Investment, and has participated in both outward and inward trade missions with quantifiable success. “Trade missions have been very useful for us – they are really excellent for making initial contacts in an unfamiliar international market,” notes Ian Campbell.

“Once you have made a bit of market entry progress, perhaps on a couple of trade missions, then you probably want to start ploughing your own furrow and developing your own customer base.”

A concentration of expertise

The successful take-up of Univation programmes nonetheless brings its own logistical challenges. When the first 42 PDVSA students arrived in September, Univation had only a couple of days to organise accommodation, banking and other basic facilities.

“Aberdeen is a very resourceful city these days,” notes Ian Campbell. “The bank managed to have operating accounts open for the students within 48 hours, despite in most cases their not having a permanent address. The letting agents similarly stepped up to the mark with accommodation being arranged for all the students within two weeks of their arrival in Aberdeen.

“That meant the students could hit the ground running with their studies.”

Univation also plays the Scottish cultural card very successfully, including visits to world-class attractions like Edinburgh, Loch Ness and the castle and distillery trails.

“We aim to make our students’ stay in Aberdeen a complete experience,” observes Ian Campbell. “We want them to take away the message that Aberdeen is a good place to live and work, and a great place to make serious oil industry contacts.”

“We argue that there is nowhere else in the world where you can access such a concentration of energy industry experience and expertise within easy reach of the city centre – compared with Houston, for example. This unique concentration is a huge asset for Aberdeen, and, when you add that to our forty productive years of academia working in harness with the energy industry, you have a compelling sales case for recruiting students from any oil corporation in the world.”