JEDDAH, 29 June 2006 — Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, said late on Tuesday night that youth should press ahead in their quest for academic and technological excellence and continue to march forward, whatever the obstacles.
“The thing that would make Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque King Abdullah the happiest would be to see the success of vital projects that serve the youth,” the crown prince said at a ceremony to mark the establishment of a new college of engineering and information technology and the convocation of the first group of graduates of the College of Business Administration in Jeddah.
Speaking on the occasion, Shoura Council member Abdullah Sadeq Dahlan, chairman of the board of trustees of the College of Business Administration, said this was the first private college to receive accreditation from the Ministry of Higher Education.
The college offers specializations in various aspects of management such as financing, accounting, human resources management, marketing and management information systems, Dahlan said.
In the presence of the crown prince, 200 men and 50 women received their degrees. Describing the features of the courses in the college, Dahlan said its graduates perfectly suited the requirements of the Saudi job market. All graduates have been promised jobs in various companies and banks in the Kingdom, the chairman said. The college is also linked with the King Abdul Aziz University in various projects.
The courses in the new college of engineering and information technology, the foundation stone of which was laid by the crown prince, are designed so that its graduates will fill the gap in the number of high-tech Saudi engineers needed in the rapidly growing IT and related fields.
Dahlan hoped that Saudis would not need to go abroad to learn IT once the college became fully operational.
The crown prince also laid the foundation stone for various training projects of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training in Jeddah. The SR360 million projects include the construction and equipping of a college for the training of men trainers and another for women in addition to a higher institute of technology for women.
The GOTEVOT also signed an agreement, in the presence of the crown prince, with the Abdul Latif Al-Fouzan Company for offering specialized training to the Saudi youth in retailing sector.
