RIYADH, 19 September 2006 — For the first time in Saudi Arabia, hundreds of young Saudi ladies will start their technical education next week in a boost to get more female participation in the country’s job market.
Recent high school graduates can earn two-year associate degrees that will offer them marketable skills. Four technical schools are established in Riyadh, Tabuk, Ahsa and Madinah as per the directives of the Council of Ministers last year.
In an interview with Arab News, Majed Al-Mugbil, general supervisor for girls training in the General Organization for Technical and Vocation Training (GOTEVOT), said that the majors offered are crafted to meet the demands of the job market. “The total number will be 39 technical colleges by the end of the five-year plan,” he said.
Right now, the colleges offer two degrees: accounting and computing. Later, 26 other majors will be phased in, including electronics, administration, nutrition, computers, photography, decorating, sewing, library, accounting and jewelry making.
Al-Mugbil said nine other high technical colleges for girls would be opened in the Kingdom to cover all 13 regions of Saudi Arabia.
He said that after screening the applicants, the number of trainees that will begin studying next week would be a total of 960 women with 240 students in each of the four high technical colleges.
“We were actually amazed at the large number of applicants from all over the Kingdom who registered on our website. There were 24,490 applications from high school graduates,” he said. “We never expected that kind of turnout.”
Al-Mugbil said young women who have graduated from high school in the past 10 years are eligible to attend the colleges.
The official said the government has collaborated with several bodies, such as the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, to study the requirements of the Saudi job market for women employees.
“Several inquiries have been done on this aspect,” he said. “We are also currently cooperating with the Ministry of Labor to pinpoint the requirements of the Saudi market for girls.”
The four main areas identified as lucrative for job-seeking women include administration, clothing and home décor, work-at-home enterprises, such as self-employed catering services, and information technology.
Referring to clothing and home décor, Al-Mugbil said this sectors are currently dominated by guest workers.
“Currently, women’s sewing shops and decorating outlets are dominated by foreign women,” he said.
“We are talking about thousands and even tens of thousands of jobs that can be immediately Saudized when qualified Saudi women are available,” Al-Mugbil said, adding that most women prefer to work in the privacy of their homes.
“Many women prefer to work from home or open their small institutions where they prepare food or pastries,” the GOTEVOT official said. “We provide the necessary training whether in administration or nutrition to help them.”
Al-Mugbil said that there was a “general satisfaction” at the majors currently provided in the technical colleges.
As for tutors, he said that the organization has employed Saudi applicants who were college graduates or had higher education degrees.
Al-Mugbil said that non-Saudi tutors were only employed where there was a shortage, such as in computer science.
He said his organization was also studying the possibility of cooperating with the Ministry of Education to create awareness among girl students in high schools of the importance of technical jobs.
