RIYADH, 3 February — Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, chief of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, will inaugurate a computer and language learning institute here today. Al-Faisal International Academy, set up at the initiative of Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd Al-Faisal Al-Farhan, will be the first of its kind to offer teaching facilities for VIPs, including ministers and senior officials.
“The first phase of the project has been implemented at a cost of SR15 million, and the plan is to build 16 more similar facilities in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states,” said Ahmed ibn Abdulrahman Al-Tawil, managing director of the academy, yesterday.
Spelling out the salient features of the institute, Al-Tawil and Khalid Hammad, the academy’s assistant managing director, said degrees and diplomas accredited from major international universities will be awarded to students enrolled. They said that special classrooms with a separate access have been designed for the VIP students.
The facilities include an Internet cafe, a library, a huge recreation center and a restaurant.
The academy, they said, is working in partnership with Microsoft International to offer courses in subjects like programming technology, networks technology, e-commerce and Internet. They pointed out that the academy, built up on an area of 5,000 square meters, will also offer courses in English, French and Arabic languages in cooperation with the Language Company of the US. It will function under the supervision of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training.
They said a new academy on the same model will be opened exclusively for girls in Riyadh in September this year.
