JEDDAH, 17 July 2005 — A combined effort by the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Khadeja Bint Khowailed’s center at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry have presented a 10-day course aiming to educate women in how to establish businesses from their homes. 22 women have been participating in the program that enables them to use their talents and generate income.
The course was held at the Future Experts Center for Skills & Languages, Jeddah, and is the first of four parts. The Chamber of Commerce & Industry informed Arab News that 50 females from different fields registered for this course. Only 22 of them were unemployed and thus qualified for participation. “It is the first time Saudi women get this type of education from qualified Saudi consultants”, said Samia Falimban, head of Women’s Training Programs at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry. “The course used to be taught by foreign consultants. There feedback was positive after previous courses and we thought it was a good idea to give lectures on this topic to an audience with backgrounds in economics and management.”
Two consultants from the Chamber of Commerce & Industry teach the course: Naila Attar, consultant and coach in Economics and Management and Lama Al-Ghalayini, human resource management consultant. Both have done their best to come up with explanatory and inspirational lectures and workshops. The students will learn how to write a business plan that includes finance, marketing and advertising. “I wish that this course was performed earlier. Naila Attar and Lama Al-Ghalayini are the perfect instructors for this job”, said Nadia Alawi, one of the participants.
Naila Attar’s goal is to help women establish a home-based business with minimum funds. “There are so many talented and creative women in the Kingdom and we want to direct their energy so that it will be to their own benefit. We will show them how to make a budget”. Lama Al-Ghalayini agreed with Attar that it was important to inspire these women also for the benefit of their communities. “By giving this course, we want to reach the large number of women who stay at home. When taught well, they will eventually be able to improve the city’s and the country’s economy”, Al-Ghalayini continued.
The women presented their projects on the last two days. Some had chosen food-marketing and others decoration and fashion. One woman exposed a nursery project another had chosen to establish a simple entertainment center for disabled children. Internet marketing and web designing were also topics among the business ideas, as were a spa and a religious tourism program covering Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah.
The Chamber of Commerce & Industry is awarding certificates for every participant at the end of the 10-day course. The projects will be supervised even after the end of the course. The third leg of the course began on yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
