JEDDAH, 19 July 2004 — The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Center for Manpower Development is to add a “job fair” designed specifically for women to its twice-yearly event for men next November in a drive to help women find employment.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the executive board of the center held at the chamber headquarters here on Sunday, according to Saud O. Ounallah, general director of the JCCI.
“The meeting focused on employing as many Saudis as possible,” Ounallah told Arab News here after the meeting. “We would like to maximize the number in employment and also help women find suitable jobs,” he said. “We will do whatever it takes to increase the number, to take care of the youngsters who are available in the market and who cannot find a proper job for themselves,” he said.
The twice-yearly event brings together job-seekers and companies seeking staff. Ninety-seven local companies participated in the first gathering this year, the fifth in a series.
“In the first of this year’s job fairs, Jeddah chamber broke a record by matching 907 jobs to Saudi candidates as against 300 a year before, the maximum by any chamber in the Kingdom. At that event, there were no women,” Ounallah said. “In November, women will be included and we are planning to increase the number of intakes to four in a year,” he added.
An important outcome of the meeting was the formation of patronage boards. The meeting discussed the issues that the patronage boards will be addressing this year.
“The patronage boards are think-tanks within the Center for Manpower Development. They are to give us ideas, support, and information in order to direct our activities and review our performance,” said Dr. Muhammad Moustafa Mahmoud, general manager of the center.
Of the two patronage boards, one supports local companies in Jeddah that operate in the areas of education, training and employment, and is headed by Osama Al-Khereiji. Musaal Omran heads the other, which focuses on employment.
Ounallah said the number of members of patronage boards depends on the number of “files” or issues that each patronage board is going to handle during the year. One member of the board will handle each file. The other board will probably have three to four members plus the head,” he added.
“Patronage boards have a combination of key officials from academic institutions and leading businessmen who are also part of the job creation program,” explained Dr. Mahmoud.
He said the center has key strategic alliance with the office of the Human Resources Development Fund in Jeddah because a major objective of the center is to maximize the use of the services and funds available.
