Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM), represented by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program, announced the launch of the first “Promising Path” program.

The Promising Path, which is one of the strategic programs launched last year by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also the Chairman of the Human Capability Development Program Committee, targets newcomers who will be employed in partnership with private sector companies.

During the launch of the program, the Ministry of Industry has signed five agreements with industrial companies, in the presence of Industry Minister Bandar Al-Khorayef, and Education Minister Yousef Al-Bunyan, and a number of top officials from the two ministries.

The Promising Path is one of the strategic paths of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program allocated to support the promising sectors in developing human capabilities to meet the needs of the private sector through scholarships and on-the-job training programs at global corporations.

The companies that signed the agreements included the International Maritime Industries Company, Snam, Marafiq, Ceer, and Al Safi Danone.

These companies will hire students who will be then sent on scholarships according to the procedures of the program. After graduation, they will work for the companies that hired them.

The CEO of the Human Capacity Development Program, Eng. Anas Ibrahim Al-Madiaf, explained that the signing of these agreements will lead to effective cooperation and partnership between the government agencies and the private sector.

Eng. Al-Madiaf stated that the program will sign further partnership agreements in this path with companies in several other sectors, in order to enhance the competitiveness of Saudis, which falls within the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

These agreements aim to enable the private sector establishments design training programs and conclude partnerships with training facilities and international factories according to the actual need that suits the operational model of each facility, in addition to providing an applied work environment that provides scholarship students with qualitative technical and professional skills.

For her part, Dr. Amal bint Abdulhamid Shuqair, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Scholarships, stated that 381 male and female scholarship students will be sent on scholarships under 6 training programs in a number of specializations.

The specializations include supply chain, marine engineering, technology engineering, marine architecture, design and production.

In turn, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources for Human Capacity Development, Eng. Faris bin Saleh Al-Saqabi, expressed his pride in the fact that the Ministry of Industry is the first government entity to activate the Promising Path by concluding partnerships with the private sector, and introducing the importance of the path to the industrial and mining sectors.

Eng. Al-Saqabi indicated that the 5 agreements focused on 6 training programs to qualify Saudis working in national factories to hold positions of production manager, maintenance manager, production and supply chain supervisor, operation engineer, production engineer, design engineer, and production technician.