RIYADH, 8 March 2006 — On behalf of the Governor of Riyadh Prince Salman, the Minister of Labor Ghazi Al-Gosaibi inaugurated yesterday the General Motors Technical Training Program, which is a collaboration between the General Organization for Technical Educational and Vocational Training (GOTEVT) and General Motors (GM).
Minister of Social Affairs Ibrahim Al-Akkas and Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Jameel Mulla as well as other officials also attended the ceremony.
During his speech, the governor of GOTEVT, Ali Al-Ghafees, announced that as part of the institute’s new training program across the Kingdom a new main office has been built in the capital in addition to ten technical colleges and 21 vocational training institutes to be built in the Riyadh region in the near future.
The governor mentioned that the total cost for constructing the vocational training units throughout the Kingdom was SR2.6 billion. The projects are expected to cover an area of 60,000 square meters apiece in various provinces and regions in the Kingdom in the near future.
Girls in the Kingdom will also have a chance to receive vocational training for the first time, as eight other higher female technical institutes and two training colleges for training men and women will also be included.
“These institutes will be constructed in the provinces of Riyadh. They will be implemented based on special engineering standards that suite the nature of training on new equipment,” Al-Ghafees said.
The new institute in the capital consists of the main institute administration building, workshops, training laboratories, the cafeteria, a mosque, multiple usage hall, a clinic, supporting services building and car parking. The total cost of the new institute is estimated at SR45 million.
Al-Ghafees said that the new institute has a capacity of 1,000 students. Saudi young men and women will be trained in various majors, including maintenance of engines, vehicles, maintenance of stationary equipment, general mechanics, car mechanics, diesel machines, metalworking, painting, electricity, air conditioning, carpentry, welding, photocopying, and visual and audio electronics.
“The institute is part of the collaboration between GOTEVT and the private sector, represented by General Motors, which seeks to train Saudi youth in the field of car maintenance,” said Al-Ghafees.
“We hope that this partnership extends to cover other vocational training institutes in the rest of the Kingdom’s cities and towns,” he added.
He said that vocational-training programs between the public and private sector were futile if recruiting agencies were astray from the goals and purposes of training programs set by the institution.
In his speech, Terry Johnsson, managing director of GM in the Middle East, said that the inauguration of the training program was yet another milestone in the history of GM in the Kingdom.
He said that when the company had advertised last November for the first intake for technical students, they expected the number to fill the 80 places that we are available. “We received 800 applications,” he said.
He mentioned that training was a “top priority” for GM. He also said that shared the view of the Saudi government that Saudization would increase employment of Saudis across all sectors of the domestic economy, reduce dependence on foreign workers and recapture income that goes overseas.
“But first we must have the training facilities in place to equip nationals to carry out the job, responsibilities that they will be assuming,” he added.
“Throughout our own dealer network here, we have very few sales people who are Saudi nationals and almost no technical personnel. But this is changing, not only in our own organization, but across the entire business spectrum,” said Johnsson.
Answering questions from reporters, the minister of labor said yesterday that he believed the old view that blue-collar jobs was taboo was diminishing in the Kingdom.
“The institute — GOTEVT — will train within the next four years up to 300,000 Saudis. An additional 100,000 will be trained in the private sector. In five years, some 500,000 Saudis will have been trained for the job market and that is when the problems of Saudization, replacing a Saudi in place of a non-Saudi, will be solved,” said Al-Gosaibi.
