Angola primes students for oil futures

Angola and France have signed an agreement for the oil training of an initial 50 Angolan students at French universities.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum explained that the process to send the students to France started with a state visit to France by the President of Angola, João Lourenço, in 2018.  

The two countries agreed during the visit to co-finance the education of 50 Angolan students at French universities and the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum thereby pre-selected and tested 100 candidates in math and science – 50 were finally selected by the Lycée Française in Luanda – and they received intensive training and preparation in development math, physics and French from March to June 2018.

They will now travel to France for two months of intensive lessons and will be allocated personal tutors.

“The Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum is committed to training young people in the oil industry which is highly demanding,” said the spokesman. “This first experiment is far-reaching and leads us to the signing of this agreement to send students to France in the coming years.”

The agreement, signed by Secretary of State for Petroleum José Alexandre Barroso and the Ambassador of France to Angola Sylvain Itté, was signed at a press conference in Luanda.