JEDDAH, 4 October 2004 — The Labor Ministry has embarked on a major program to find jobs for all unemployed Saudis, qualified or unqualified. The move comes as part the government’s efforts to solve the country’s growing unemployment problem.
The program, according to Al-Madinah Arabic daily, was worked out in coordination with the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT), the General Organization for Social Insurance and the Manpower Development Fund.
Some 46 committees have been set up in various parts of the Kingdom with a total of 1,357 members to execute the program. A media campaign will be launched to introduce the program and its objectives.
Training is the key to solve the problem and Dr. Ali ibn Nasser Al-Ghafees, governor of GOTEVOT, said his organization would spend SR8.7 billion to train 100,000 young Saudis during the next five years.
Under the new program, all unemployed Saudis will be first classified into two categories: Qualified and unqualified for jobs. The qualified among them will be sent to the job market after providing them with necessary training and refresher courses.
The unqualified, the paper said, will be sent either for community service program or military training or national training program or private training centers to get trained for taking up suitable jobs.
According to the report carried by Al-Madinah, 75 percent of the Kingdom’s unemployed are women. But the General Statistics Department put the figure at 21.7 percent. Market analysts say there are only limited job opportunities for women in the Kingdom.
Many obstacles stand in the way of women’s jobs such as the ban on driving and the lack of qualification in applied sciences and engineering. “The real reason for the increase in unemployment among women is that most of them have graduated in theoretical subjects and have not received any professional qualifications to take up jobs,” Huda Al-Nasser, a Saudi businesswoman told the daily.
