JEDDAH, 14 April 2005 — Effat College held its fourth career day on Tuesday. More than three hundred young women, with their CVs, participated. The highlight was a job fair made available for a fee of SR50. Job-seekers submitted their CVs to recruiters and were interviewed at once for open positions.
Fifteen companies participated in the job fair. They included Procter and Gamble, Jeddah Institute for Speech and Hearing (JISH), Qatar Airways, Turner International and Hill and Knowlton. Other participants were public and private institutions from the health sector, education, the media, banks and private companies.
“By 4 p.m. we had received 288 applications for the 65 job openings were posted by the participating companies,” said Dr. Asma Siddiki, Effat College student affairs dean. “All the participating companies, especially Turner International and Taher Group, were impressed and surprised by the applicants’ qualifications,” she said.
The fourth annual career day had as its theme “Women: Between Tradition and Modernity.” The keynote speaker was Princess Adila bint Abdullah, director of the National Charitable Organization for Home Health Care.
Princess Adila said that the rapid changes and developments in various fields demand that we adapt and move with those technological advancements which serve our country.
Princess Nora bint Turki Al-Faisal, the assistant vice chairman of Effat College’s board of trustees, spoke on behalf of Princess Lolowa Al-Faisal, the vice chairman, about women’s unemployment and how Effat College had decided to play a role in solving it by giving women the proper qualifications and training for finding jobs.
The two panel discussions included Dr. Salwa Al-Hazzaa, head of ophthalmology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Maha Fetaihi, a member of Khadija bint Khowailid Center for Businesswomen, Dr. Aisha Al-Hussaini, a faculty member of King Abdul Aziz University, interior designer Nadia Bakhurji, psychologist May Dabbagh and Maha Akeel of Arab News. The panelists spoke about their experiences in the workplace and the challenges and opportunities they had had.
