Fatima Muhammad
Saudi Gazette
Lack of skills and not absence of certificates and diplomas has kept Saudis away from the job market. Hence training at private sector companies and institutes was the solution that both the government sector and the private sector thought of to decrease unemployment rate among Saudis, which hit 12.1% by 2012. More challenging was the unemployment rate among youth under the age of 30 which reached 28.9%.
According to Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI) figures by 2012 there were over 10 million jobs in both the private and public sector, however Saudis occupy only 41.9% of these jobs.
The government efforts to reduce this percentage is in the hands of officials at the Human Resource Development Fund — a government run body under the umbrella of the Ministry of Labor.
The fund provide three forms of training for Saudis — training that leads to a job, training to enhance skills needed in the job market not necessary to provide trainees with jobs, and training while at work — stated Sultan Al-Surai the fund spokesman. The training is provided to all job seekers of both genders who lack specific labor market skills.
Training is given at authorized private institutes and centers, training at work is also done at private companies. So far over 169,000 unskilled Saudis have benefited from training that leads to jobs, while over 24,000 have been trained to work for the private sector. The fund also gave summer training to 39,000 students.
The fund provides financial support to any company regardless of how grand it is as long as how many job offers it has. It also supports training given to Saudis at all Saudi regions with focus on regions that can provide more job opportunities, which are Central region, Makkah region and Eastern Province.
The fund provides financial support to private companies that offer training for Saudis or non-Saudis whose mother is Saudi national. Private companies select individuals that they want to train and then they contact the fund seeking financial support, which provides a support that does not exceed SR1,500 per individual.
Each person receiving training will be immediately registered at social security to ensure he/she did not receive any training previously. The training shall consist of two parts — theoretical and practical — based on the fund system, and the support provided is not restricted to any specialization and is provided to all private companies operating in the Kingdom.
Since the government sector cannot solve the issue on its own a number of private companies have started to take their own initiatives to train Saudis and help them get into the job market.
Among the private sector companies that offer training for both its own employees and the public is the Nesma Group of Companies. Nesma has four training centers in the Western and Eastern regions. The training that these centers provide include: Vocational, hospitality, embroidery, English, computer, and other management and business skills.
In a visit to the Nesma Training Center in Al-Rawdah District here in Jeddah, Sara Trabulsi the HR Planning Manager explained that Nesma Training Center, which was launched in 2008, is devoted to serve Saudis of both genders and to help them get better job opportunities. “Youth graduate with certificates but not with the right skills needed in the job market, hence Nesma established this center as part of its Corporate Society Responsibility Program.”
The center provides training to private and public sector employees as well as jobseekers. Recently it has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education to provide English and computer classes to 945 of the ministry’s staff.
Overall 30% of people approaching the center are private sector employees, 25% are jobseekers while 19% are university graduates. According to the center figures, up to 34% of all registered trainees are between the age of 21 and 24.
Trabulsi noted that majority of Saudi men who join the center are already working but need to advance their work skills. However, women are mainly unemployed and seek to enhance their skills. “The English courses that the center provides are most in demand compared to the computer and business skills,” added Trabulsi.
In vocational training, the Nesma Group has signed an agreement with both the Human Resource Development Fund and the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, which allowed the company to provide 300 young Saudi men in Makkah and thousands in the Eastern Province with those technical skills most needed to work in the construction sector.
Meanwhile, 24 Saudi female trainees have graduated from the Nesma Embroidery and Tailoring Center here in Jeddah, and another 24 are currently being trained in Khulais, located in the Makkah Region.
Another private sector company that provides training is Al-Hokair Group. The Abdul Muhsen Al-Hokair High Institute for Hospitality focuses on providing hospitality training for young Saudi men seeking jobs in this sector.
The institute, which was launched in 2009, has trained 1,500 Saudi men to work as chefs, waiters and in other hospitality jobs offered by four and five stars hotels. The academy provides free of charge training for young Saudis said Fawaz Abu Suaifan, the director of the marketing consultation services at the institute.
According to him any Saudi approaching their institute will first sign a contract with an employer and then start the free of charge training. The salaries for the jobs range from SR4,000 to SR6,000. It is expected that a woman branch of the institute will start operating by 2014 after finalizing procedures.
So far the institute operates in Riyadh and it will also establish regional branches at Baha, Jazan, Hail, and Makkah. Al-Hokair signed an agreement with the TVTC to operate at already established centers at these cities. The training offered for Saudis at these centers is a two-year program. Al-Hokair also provides six month training for Saudis seeking administrative and accounting jobs in the hospitality sector, added Abu Suaifan.
