JEDDAH, 21 January 2007 — Jeddah will have its first technical college for women soon. The General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) has already started working on the project.
The new college will have a capacity of 1,000 students and studies will begin next academic year.
“We have already prepared the design for the college project. Construction will start after selecting the contractor through tenders,” said Ali Al-Ghafees, head of GOTEVOT. He said the new college of technology, located north of Jeddah, would admit not only secondary school graduates but also university graduates.
“We are planning to provide short-term training courses for the university graduates,” he added.
Nadiya Baashen, the first woman director of GOTEVOT, said the new college would have five specializations in the beginning. They include computer science with its branches of maintenance, programming and networking; food technology including cooking and dieting; and dressmaking including fashions, designs and tailoring.
Nadiya indicated the possibility of expanding the two-year courses of specialization from five to ten at a later stage, considering job market requirements. Studies will be in English and in the first year intensive studies will be given in the language. She said the college would accommodate those secondary school graduates who failed to obtain admission at universities and other colleges. The training committee at the organization, she added, will provide on-the-job training to students by helping them to work at private institutions during summer holidays.
Nadiya expected a big turnout of women at technical colleges within the next two years, as they would train them to get suitable jobs. “We believe that women will prefer these technical colleges to universities,” she added.
In a previous statement, Al-Ghafees had announced his organization’s plan to establish 17 such technical colleges for girls in different parts of the Kingdom as part of its effort to cut down unemployment rate among Saudi women. “The new technical colleges for girls will have specializations required by the job market and suitable to their nature,” he said.
The move to set up technical colleges for girls comes in line with the government plan to expand job opportunities for women beyond the traditional sectors of health and education.
The overwhelming majority of the Kingdom’s female university graduates, who account for 55 percent of the total, remain at home as most Saudi families do not like to send their girls to work places. But the trend has changed in recent years. Many young women have of late taken up jobs as journalists, medical editors, executive secretaries and receptionists.
A good number of Saudi women, who were previously working abroad, have returned to the Kingdom after seeing the opportunities available to them.
The Council of Ministers adopted a nine-point program two years ago to increase women’s employment in the country. It instructed government departments to license women’s businesses and open women’s sections within a year.
