Nafisa academy to train 500 girls for job market

The Nafisa Shams Academy for Arts and Crafts has signed an agreement with a social charity fund under Abdul Lateef Jameel (ALJ) to train almost 500 Saudi girls to help them enter the labor market with professional and administrative training.
The aim of this training is to facilitate a number of companies in administrative areas in reaching their Saudization targets.
“The girls can train for jobs such as beautician, hairdresser, seamstress, fashion designer or a producer of carpets and prayer mats. They can also opt for secretarial, administrative or management training so they can fulfill the requirement of Saudization in the market. We want our girls to have full-fledged opportunity to work in the fashion and cosmetic industry,” said Jawaher Al-Zahrani, general manager of the academy.
The academy would provide enough training and support to have women start their own business from home and strengthen their character for employment.
Al-Zahrani said the academy aims to educate Saudi girls and women at various levels to engage them with the local community. The academy has two training tracks — qualification programs and short-term programs — each with different objectives and durations. The short-term programs develop a trainee’s skills and enhance their competence. The qualification programs include makeup art, hairstyling, tailoring, fashion design, digital photography and cooking. Also included are marketing skills, customer service, human resource and secretarial work.
“We want these women to have a steady source of income. Two hundred and five women are currently working from home and the academy produces 10,000 prayer mats per year. We make sure that our products match quality standards,” said Al-Zahrani.
In 2012, Saudi women made almost 85,259 prayer carpets at home. Since its inception in 2006, the Nafisa Shams Academy has provided training to 6,065 trainees through 48 training courses organized in 28 workshops.