JUBAIL INDUSTRIAL CITY, Saudi Arabia — Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) recently received the second batch of student interns as part of its Internship Program for this year. Forty-four student interns joined Sadara in September, bringing the total number of interns to 55 this year.

This latest batch of students were brought onboard from three different educational institutions in the Jubail: The Jubail Technical Institute (JTI), Jubail University College (JUC) and Jubail Industrial College (JIC), where 25 students were participating in diploma programs and 19 in bachelor's degree programs.

The students were welcomed on their first day by Sadara’s Human Resources team, led by Ali AlQahtani, director - human capital development, who kicked off their Internship Orientation Session, encouraging the students to take advantage of the career and learning opportunities available to them through the program, and introducing them to the safety requirements expected of all employees working in Sadara.

“The Sadara Internship Program is one of the company’s primary Non-Employee Training programs, supporting Sadara business lines in terms of fulfilling their manpower needs.

“The program provides highly competent trainees selected from local educational institutions and creates a potential pool of national talent who have been trained, supervised and evaluated for a sufficient period within the Sadara work environment,” said AlQahtani.

“Our Non-Employee Training programs consist of three main categories: The On-Job-Training (OJT) Program, the Apprenticeship Program and the Internship Program.

“The Sadara Internship Program, commonly known as ‘COOP,’ is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience and provides academic credit for structured job experience,” added AlQahtani.

Sadara’s Vice President of Industrial Relations, Farhan AlQahtani, said on this occasion: “The company’s social responsibility and human resources strategies focus on developing and qualifying national manpower to fulfill the Saudi market’s requirements as well as the company’s continuing demand for new employees, whether on a technical or administrative level.

He added: “Sadara has greatly benefited from its Non-Employee Training programs, as we’ve successfully hired over 250 employees to date from these programs through close collaboration with various educational entities from around the Kingdom especially the Eastern Province, including King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd University, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Jubail University College, Jubail Industrial College and Jubail Technical Institute.”

In the meantime, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sadara has reached over 71% Saudization as of August 2020, compared with 69% in 2019, and the company aims to continue such rates while maintaining a diverse selection of qualified professionals and empowering more women at work. — SG