RIYADH: A leading Riyadh-based Swedish company which recently netted a SR450 million project for power generation at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, has offered scholarships to Saudi graduates who wish to do their Masters in electrical engineering.

“ABB Saudi Arabia will implement this program in cooperation with the Swedish Embassy in Riyadh,” said Zeid Al-Rumaihi, country human resources manager for ABB Saudi Arabia.

“The company’s Masters scholarship program, which is being implemented for the third year in succession, has already paid for a number of students to travel abroad to Sweden to study at Chalmers University of Technology, one of the top 200 universities worldwide for engineering subjects,” Al-Rumaihi said, stressing that the two-year course will help young Saudi graduates develop and refine their skills.

“With one of the highest percentages of Saudi employees in the industry, ABB Saudi Arabia has highlighted the importance of educating Saudi nationals in the field of electrical engineering,” he added.

Applications from Saudi graduates should reach the company before Dec. 31.

He said that the company is keen to develop local skills since the demand for Saudi nationals in the electrical engineering sector is rising at a rate that may leave the country’s private sector lacking the national resources needed to complete electricity-related projects.

Explaining the demand in the country’s power sector, which attracts SR300 billion over the next 10 years, he said the availability of Saudi-trained electrical engineers needs to be addressed as soon as possible.