Education

Sustainable business growth

Our education outreach programs focus on science and technology, encouraging students to study these subjects. This in turn helps to ensure we have a future global workforce of science and technology experts able to support sustainable business growth.

Our programs promote the theme of energy and share the knowledge of the fundamental role energy plays in driving modern day society and how it is generated. We ask students to consider the challenge of how we can fulfill the demand for energy at the same time as minimizing negative impacts on the environment.

Mutual understanding

As a truly global organization it is also very much in our interests to foster mutual understanding between cultures and nations, both within and alongside the company. We support Saudi Aramco in its education programs in Europe, working with organizations such as the School of Oriental and African Studies, The Hague International Model United Nations, Delft University and the British Science Association.

AOC’s education outreach

In the last year, AOC has been involved in a number of different education projects, involving working with schools, organizing children’s events, and academic visits to Saudi Arabia.

Resto Van Harte is a subsidized organization that provides free meals to people in communities where there are fundamental problems with social exclusion and desolation. Working with them, AOC organized a children’s lunch to bring together students aged seven to 11, as a small but notable step towards greater integration. Following the lunch, AOC employees accompanied students on a free visit to the Museon museum, with the aim of encouraging the children to recognize education as a right and learning as something to be enjoyed.

The cultural differences between these kids are not to be underestimated so it is a lot of work. With the selfless help of AOC, we are able to tackle this challenge quite successfully. Ben Lechab, Manager of Resto Van Harte

Imperial College London focuses primarily on science, engineering, medicine and business, making it an obvious choice for a partnership program with AOC. We organized the first trip originating from a European market to Saudi Aramco, selecting eight students on competitive merit and four academics to participate in the trip of a lifetime. The trip included a visit to the Research and Development Center at Saudi Aramco, which made students aware of the commitment to research and the opportunities that existed for exciting careers within the company. Strong ties have been built with Saudi Aramco and the university as a consequence of this organized tour.

Academics from Europe’s top institutions visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to learn more about Saudi Aramco and the country and to participate in an exchange of research, knowledge and ideas with their counterparts. AOC has successfully organized two academic visits with 2010’s visit involving representatives from Freiberg University in Germany, Herriot-Watt University in Scotland, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Delft in the Netherlands and Imperial College in the United Kingdom. During their visit to Saudi Aramco headquarters, they toured the Research and Development Center, which made students aware of the company’s commitment to the field.

Seeing the facilities available at the Exploration and Petroleum engineering Center Advanced research Center and the accomplishments of the department exceeded my expectations by far. Professor Martin Landro, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Swiss Cottage SEN caters for children with special educational needs between the ages of two and 16. The school is recognized as being one of the best in the country, however, the teachers and carers struggle to do everything they want to do for the children because of low funding. When it came to throwing a festive event for the school’s 150 students, AOC wanted to help make it the best one ever. We provided funding for the activities and supported organization of the event, which catered for the children and their families.

Helping students develop

We are very proud of the way in which many of the projects we work on encourage students to start thinking about their future in a different way and also expand their insights into different cultures.

Students have remarked upon how much they have learned and, particularly after trips to Saudi Arabia, commented on how their perspectives of Saudi Arabian culture have changed.

Both of these things are great outcomes for AOC as well as the students involved.