JEDDAH, 11 March 2007 — The British Consul General Gerard Russell and Reem Bakheet of Future Experts signed a funding deal worth SR700,000 in Jeddah yesterday to train Saudi women in business.
The amount will finance an initial series of 10 workshops for 40 women in business development and management. Top-caliber professional trainers will present the training programs covering major skills programs in Jeddah, Madinah, Abha and Hail.
Bakheet said the aim of the project is to provide skills that made women better able and more competent to participate fully in business. “Applicants will be selected on the bases of their overall sense of mission, their plans for the way they want to participate in business and the way it fits in with their lives,” she said. She added that women already employed would be preferable, but did not rule out those who were not.
Speaking at the signing, Russell said he was delighted to be part of an agreement that would support business and professional women play a more productive role in Saudi society.
The first program in the training will consist of workshops held at the Future Experts Center in Jeddah. The company is well known for providing numerous services and social benefits specifically for Saudi women. Subjects will cover a range of business topics from forming work teams and time management through decision making skills and strategic planning to negotiating skills training.
“Very often highly-qualified people from an academic discipline are given management positions, yet have no management training,” Bakheet said. “The program seeks to help women learn essential management skills and fit more effectively into business life.”
She noted that the difference of the output of the Saudi education system was the effectiveness of their graduates in the world of business. The US and Western system based much of their learning on project work and actively involving the students in target-driven curricula. The local system tends to accent memorizing coursework without necessarily giving the students a chance to apply the learning before graduating. “This results in a weak product,” she pointed out.
Commenting on encountering potential difficulties in developing the role of women in business in a practical sense, she said that religious and traditional values were part of the fabric of Saudi society and saw no real conflict between making a real contribution to business and society and maintaining cultural values. The main challenge, she felt, is achieving a workable balance between family duties and full participation in business life. “I am sure that can be done,” she said.
The senior project manager at the consulate, Mona Althgafi, said that the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) Global Opportunities Fund (GOF) had provided the funds for the Future Experts project. “We team up with both governmental and private partners to fund projects that we feel contribute to the UK’s international strategic priorities,” she said. There were other projects already running in the Kingdom through the chambers of commerce and industry under the scheme. “This particular one focuses on women’s development but generally they are open to all,” she said.
The GOF was established three years ago to support developmental projects in a range of areas in which the UK has particular interests and promote action on global issues in areas of strategic importance to the UK. One of the six thematic programs within the project is “Engaging with the Islamic World” with the objectives of strengthening the rule of law, promoting good governance and to increasing the participation of women in decision-making in matters that affect their lives.