Rashid Al-Thowaini

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

 

HAIL – The hope of finding a job is fading for many female graduates of community colleges across the Kingdom. Although some graduates received job offers while studying, the vast majority of them have yet to land a decent job and remain unemployed several years after graduation.



Speaking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, several of these graduates said that they have begun to realize that finding gainful employment is now a vanishing dream.



F. Al-Anzi, a computer science graduate, dreamed of finding a job immediately after completing her studies. “However, it was an utter shock to me to realize that nobody wanted to give me a job despite my outstanding performance in my specialized discipline. It is not that there are no vacancies. The authorities, for some strange reason,  are not ready to employ female graduates,” she said.



Another young woman, who graduated three years ago, said that even though she and other graduates have specialized in administrative and secretarial work, they are still not being considered for jobs. “Several teachers have been appointed in such posts in schools and other educational institutions, and we have been left out,” she claimed.



Asma Al-Hudaifi, who graduated with a degree in English nearly 10 years ago, is still unemployed. “I want to ask the concerned authorities: Why are they marginalizing us even though they had promised to appoint us as teachers of English language in class 4 immediately after our graduation? Up to this day, we haven’t seen any move to translate these words into action. We have wasted all these years, pinning our hopes on getting a job but to no avail.”



Another female graduate, who specialized in medical inventory, said: “Although I got admission to a college of education, I preferred to join the community college after learning of the difficulties graduate teachers face in getting a job.  I also passed the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties exam. However, I was denied a job while those from my senior batch have been employed.”



Another female graduate said that she graduated in the first batch of computer science from a community college nearly 10 years ago. “I left my husband in Taif to join the college after realizing that there was a very good opportunity to get jobs if I specialized in this discipline. After completing the course, I applied for a post at an adult education school in our neighborhood but to no avail.” She continued: “The strange thing is that no one from our batch has been employed anywhere. All our dreams have been shattered, and we don’t know what to do with our certificates.”



An official source at the Ministry of Higher Education said that community college graduates are part and parcel of Saudi society and their grievances shall be addressed promptly. “As far as their specializations are concerned, some of them were classified by the Ministry of Civil Service for appointment after considering their seniority while others are classified under the social service sector,” he said. The source even tried to pass the buck. “Giving employment to them is not the responsibility of our ministry. It is that of the Ministry of Civil Service,” he argued.