JEDDAH, 9 November 2006 — The British Council and the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) ended a five-day workshop entitled the National Occupational Skills Standards Workshops here recently. The event took place at the Directorate General for the Design and Development of Curricula offices at the Riyadh College of Technology.
“We are targeting all experts that design vocational training curricula to update them with information on how to design courses that can suit their societies,” said Badr Aloliwi, general director for design and development of curricula at the organization. “We aim to design curricula that go with what the Saudi job market needs,” he said.
Aloliwi along with Ahmed Al-Fehaid, director general for international cooperation, put together the workshop programs. Delegates from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen attended the meeting. The delegates were also involved in discussing the processes and techniques involved in analyzing industrial tasks and using the results to design training curricula.
Four representatives from the United Kingdom joined the delegation. One of the Britons is from a British organization called SEMTA (Science, Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies Alliance). The other three were from Dudley College in the West Midlands near Birmingham. In the workshops, the UK representatives provided input relating to employer involvement in vocational training, skills forecasting and the design of curricula and assessment criteria for work-based training.
Aloliwi pointed out that the stereotypical view of vocational careers being for blue-collar workers is gradually changing in Saudi society. “Blue-collar jobs are becoming more respectable in recent years. The need for them is growing now, especially with the industrial enhancement and the new economic cities,” said Aloliwi.
The Human Resources Development Fund is encouraging employers to hire Saudis in blue-collar jobs by contributing toward the salaries of Saudi workers in the first two years of employment. “Some employers prefer the foreign labor for the humble salaries they have to give,” added Aloliwi.
