RIYADH: The company that owns Al-Sadhan group of malls and hypermarkets has signed an agreement with the Human Resources Fund to give Saudis on the job training and open job opportunities for them.

The signing ceremony was held at Al-Mujaz Education and Training Center, which is part of the Al-Sadhan Commercial group. The 7-year-old training center has contributed to the process of Saudization in Al-Sadhan group and other companies. It focuses on preparing young Saudis to work in the private sector.

Manar Shamsan, head of human resources at Al-Sadhan, who signed for his group, said that Al-Sadhan was eager to hire Saudis in different jobs.

According to him, there are 1,400 employees in the group, out of which 28 percent are Saudis. “With today’s signing and with the help of graduates from Al-Mujaz Education and Training Center, we can say that the percentage will increase noticeably in the coming years,” Shamsan said.

“We hire Saudis for various positions. A great number of them are in malls as cashiers, security guards and customer service personnel,” Shamsan added. “We organize training courses for our employees but we do not send them abroad. We prepare them for the work environment in different situations.”

Commenting on the company’s policy, he said: “We also seek people with disabilities. We hire them for any position based on their qualifications.”

Shamsan also said that Al-Sadhan was planning to increase the “female presence in managerial positions and customer service as well as marketing.”

Ahmad Al-Zamil, general director of the Human Resources Fund, which specializes in training Saudis and finding them jobs, said that the fund aimed at Saudization in the private sector.

“We train young Saudis both male and females,” Al-Zamil said. “We direct them to places they are most suitable for. We encourage businessmen to hire more Saudis in their establishments.”

He also highlighted some efforts of the fund in training females along with men to meet the market demand. “For some years we had a shortage of Saudi nurses, so we worked on that and now we are supplying almost the full demand,” said Al-Zamil. “We aim to train Saudis to be professional and ready for work. We also track their performance and make sure that both parties — employer and employee — are satisfied.”

He also asked the media to participate and show that the Human Resources Fund is supportive of Saudis and ready to provide on-job-training to everyone.

Ahmad Al-Sadhan, head of the Board of Directors, pointed out that ever since the group had been launched, it had focused on employing Saudis. “At the beginning we faced some problems in finding qualified Saudis. Unfortunately we had to hire Saudis regardless of their qualifications, but things have changed, especially now that Al-Sadhan has a training center. Now we are looking for qualified and only qualified Saudis.”