RIYADH — Under the patronage of the Minister of Labor and Social Development, Engineer Ahmed bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, Riyadh International Catering Corporation (RICC), the owner of McDonald’s franchising rights in the central, eastern and northern regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, celebrated on January 1, 2020 at the McDonald’s Center for Training and Development the graduation of two new batches of Saudi restaurant managers as part of “Tomooh” program, in the presence of Turki bin Abdullah Al-Ja’waini, the Manager of the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf), and Prince Misha’al Bin Khalid Bin Fahd Al Saud, CEO of RICC (McDonald’s Saudi Arabia) in addition to some members of the company's Board of Directors and media representatives.

The ceremony included two visual presentations, the first of which reviewed McDonald's programs, initiatives and achievements in Saudization, while the other displayed preview of “Tomooh” program at McDonald's Company.

In his opening speech, Prince Misha’al said: "This celebration is indeed the fruit of our successful partnership with the Ministry of Labor and the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf), of which we have always been proud, and under the guidance and support the Government of His Majesty, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, and the vision of the Crown Prince, may Allah protect and preserve them. Since the opening of our first branch in 1993, we have attached prime importance to the Saudization of jobs, and McDonald’s Saudi Arabia has always been one of the leading companies in the efforts of Saudization in our sector. In this regard, we have employed tens of thousands of our youth, and faced many challenges during our march, but thanks to Allah and then thanks to our persistence and hard work of many years, we managed to successfully overcome all of them. In this process, we gained a lot of experience, which enabled us to create a work environment focused on training, qualification and development, till we became today the first choice of employment in our sector for our sons and daughters who are looking for good job opportunities."

He added: “Today, after the successes we made in the first stage, we moved to the second stage, where we started to focus intensively on quality jobs, with the aim of attracting and developing an elite of our youth. To this effect we introduced and launched the "Tomooh" program at the beginning of 2018.

McDonald's “Tomooh" program is based on qualifying young new university graduates, or those who are about to graduate, to become branch managers through an intensive 18-month training program, pervaded by courses in English language, shifts management in restaurants, food safety, production systems, profit basics, inventory management systems, management skills development approaches, effective management, security and safety basics, sales analysis, risk management, in addition to multiple social skills in the art of communication, work ethics, customer service, the ability to work under pressure, confidence building, self-disciplining, how to guide and advise, security awareness, and negotiation skills among others.

The ceremony was concluded with a speech delivered by the Minister of Labor and Social Development in which he thanked McDonald's Company for its important initiatives in Saudization and drew attention to the Kingdom's keenness to strengthen the capabilities of national cadres and the implementation of initiatives, contributions and programs that play a great part in the refinement of the Saudi young talents and the promotion of Saudization that aim to qualify, train and create work opportunities for the Saudi youth, as well as provide them with the necessary expertise to become professionally successful, in line with the goals of Vision 2030.

The number of Saudi employees in the company currently stands at more than 2,500 employees, and McDonald’s Saudi Arabia plans to have more than 40 Saudi restaurant managers by the end of 2020. — SG