JEDDAH, 24 March 2006 — For the first time in the Kingdom, a German Institute for Technical Training in Jeddah is in the works. According to Musbah Al-Ayesh, project department manager at GTZ, a German company that specializes in training, the center will be up and running in 2008 in the northern part of the city.
Al-Ayesh said GTZ is working with the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVET) to establish the technical training center. He did not mention the specific location or the cost of the project.
Al-Ayesh was speaking to Arab News during a workshop organized by GTZ, which was opened Tuesday morning by German Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Gerhard Schoembgens at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).
The goal of the workshop, said the GTZ manager, is to show Saudi companies the German style of employment training. He said the facility would initially be set up to train 3,000 students, but that the school would have a capacity to educate 5,000 future employees at a time. The building will be constructed by GOTEVET and the instructors and curriculum of the courses would be designed and conducted by German experts through GTZ.
They also might include courses for women, but they have to study the market need first in order to formulate the curriculums, he said, adding that courses for women might be in fashion design, hair dressing and other woman-related professions. He said that after establishing a center in Jeddah, GTZ and the Saudi government might consider establishing other centers in the Eastern Province and then in the Central Region.
