RIYADH, 17 May 2005 — Four Saudi aircraft technicians have graduated from a rigorous five-year BAE Systems training program to become the first local national technicians qualified to work on the Tornado aircraft.
The four Saudi aircraft technicians — Ali Al-Marri, Badmawnar Al-Otaibi, Hatem Madani and Yahya Al-Mubaraki — have now taken up full-time positions at the Programmed Depot Maintenance facility in Riyadh, working for Alsalam Aircraft Corporation. Some 2,000 Saudi employees are being trained under Learning and Development (L&D) program an Al-Yamamah offset program, with BAE Systems. This also includes 200 Saudi youths who are being trained here in various engineering fields.
According to Martin McCann, BAE Systems director of the Al-Yamamah program, the training program is an extension of a system that has already ensured more than 100 Saudi employees of BAE Systems are now qualified to work on either the Hawk fast jet or Pilatus PC-9 propeller aircraft used by the Royal Saudi Air Force. Currently, over 100 trainees are in various stages of the five-year technical course and are expected to graduate in forthcoming years.
McCann said the training program was instituted in 1995, offering places to 20-40 Saudi employees of the company each year. An exacting selection process is at the heart of the scheme’s success with the emphasis placed on identifying potential trainees with appropriate attitudes and abilities.
He said the training program has been so successful that Saudis form over half of PC-9 aircraft technicians.
The program has since been extended to work with other aircraft. “Our eventual aim is that all technicians in the Kingdom come to be Saudis who have qualified from the program.”
The training course, he pointed out, was rigorous. “Trainees are tested before being allowed to complete each stage. Whereas there was once a dearth of technical skills in the Kingdom, advanced technology companies like BAE Systems are finding that young Saudis have great enthusiasm now to succeed in such areas,” added McCann.
He said the decision to transfer this work to Alsalam with BAE Systems acting in its role as the design authority, was highly significant. It set up the notion of transferring expertise and technology-based systems to the Kingdom.
The Tornado PDM facility has 125 staff in all. Both Alsalam and BAE Systems are working toward Alsalam having over 80 percent of staff at the facility with BAE Systems staff holding the remaining positions.
