JEDDAH, 11 January 2007 — The ALJ Community Services Programs created 12,292 employment opportunities for Saudi youths in various regions in the Kingdom in 2006, and hoped to offer another 16,000 employment opportunities in 2007, said Muhammad Jameel, president of the project yesterday in a press statement. The ALJ Fund for Professional and Career Training and the ALJ Fund for Small Projects trained 2,055 men and women to be absorbed by various trades and professions. The fund launched a program for direct employment in private companies to benefit 1,469 youths. Another achievement of the ALJ fund in the year was to train and employ 118 young men in the Saudi Japanese Institute for Cars. The fund also trained six women at the Saudi Institute for Health Services and would be absorbed to active service this year bringing the total number of the job opportunities offered by the ALJ Fund for Professional and Career Training in the year to 3,648.
On the other hand, the ALJ Fund for Small Projects offered 241 opportunities through the ownership of taxi through installment payments and 21 opportunities by ownership of trucks through installment payment. The project financed 604 other small units to provide jobs for 947 young men and women. This is in addition to finding 7,435 jobs for women in different parts of the Kingdom through the Productive Family Project bringing the total employment opportunities offered by the fund for small projects to 8,644. Thus the total employment opportunities offered by the ALJ Community Services Programs this year are estimated at 12,292 while the total number of opportunities created by the project till date reached 20,172 since its inception in 2003.
Other social services undertook by the ALJ programs last year included taking 100 orphans selected from various orphanages in the Kingdom on a tour to Turkey and Malaysia.
