RIYADH — Prince Faisal Bin Bandar Bin Abdulaziz – President of The High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh and President of the High Committee overseeing the Riyadh Public Transit Project –-presided over the graduation ceremony of 230 interns from Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA)’s Summer Internship Program last Oct. 22.

The program aims to create a new generation of young Saudi talent, ready to play an active role in the new Public Transit Sector currently taking shape in Saudi Arabia, and in which ADA’s Riyadh Metro is playing a pioneering role.

Launched in 2015 by ADA in collaboration with 12 Saudi universities, the program includes knowledge transfer from the three consortia building the Metro, through a diversified academic curriculum. This, in turn, is complemented by on-site practical visits to their various manufacturing and operational facilities around the world. Courses cover various disciplines of the Engineering profession (Civil, Systems, Mechanical, Electrical...), as well as Architecture, Project Management and Operations & Maintenance.

Interns were also given the opportunity to visit the factories of Riyadh Metro’s three international rolling stock manufacturers: Germany’s Siemens, Canada’s Bombardier and France’s Alstom, where they witnessed the manufacturing and testing processes of the Riyadh metro rolling stock as well as attended several workshops. Moreover, they were able to drive each of their metro cars inside their respective factories, in degraded mode.

For the year 2017, students were able to conduct their internships in eight countries besides Saudi Arabia, namely in Italy, Denmark, UK, Austria, Germany, South Korea, France & Poland. A film highlighting those interns’ trips was featured during today’s ceremony, after which Prince Faisal awarded the program certificates to the faculty deans of the participating universities present at the event.

The Riyadh Public Transit Project was able to attract more than 1,500 Saudi employees across disciplines, spread among ADA, its consultants and contractors. — SG