JEDDAH: A four-week summer program for over 550 students kicked off at a function held at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and presided over by Technical and Vocational Training Corporation Gov. Ali Al-Ghafees on Monday night.
“Such training programs have helped our youth to acquire technical skills and also seek placements on merit,” Al-Ghafees said. “I am proud to say that our boys backed by successful training are able to compete with the best in the job market on the basis of their knowledge and skills.”
Representatives of the Al-Faisaliyah Women’s Welfare Organization, the Civil Defense and the Red Crescent, as well as those from various vocational organizations and the business community, participated in the event in which Rami Abu Ghazaleh, CEO of Albaik fast food chain, outlined the aims and objectives of the program.
The program aims to provide training in technical skills for the Saudi youth in Makkah and Jeddah. Such programs has trained more than 3,000 students in the past seven years, said Ghazaleh, who is organizing the training program for the eighth year in succession.
The program is divided into separate training sessions for boys and girls. The boys sessions consist of five specialized courses, including introduction to workshop basics, car maintenance, electrical basics and safety, plumbing basics, first aid procedures, and fire safety and prevention, as also instruction in house maintenance and painting.
The girls program consists of training sessions in decor, art and craft, basic health advice, personal grooming, including etiquette, cooking basics, physical fitness, safety and prevention of household accidents, fire safety and prevention, and first aid procedures.
In Jeddah, the boys program will be held at the Vocational Training Institute with the participation of 250 students.
In Makkah, the boys’ program is hosted in cooperation with the technical college, while the girls program will be held in cooperation with the Al-Faisaliyah Women’s Welfare Organization at the Bayt Al-Rafeef facility. There will be 150 boys and 150 girls seeking training in the holy city.
Abu Ghazaleh said he was proud of this initiative, which is aimed at making each trainee a house hero. “This is also part of our overall corporate social responsibility program directed at encouraging young people to make their contribution to society by engaging them in a series of innovative and interactive programs,” he added.
