Saudi Arabia’s 10 Colleges of Excellence (CoE) have been operational since September in various cities as scheduled, said Mohammed Al-Shabanah, consultant and head of employer relations at this new entity of training centers.

“Our market will benefit from a well trained Saudi work force that will replace many skilled expats who have now left the country,” he said, noting that many of these expats arrived in the Kingdom with hardly any experience.

The 10 colleges will be operating in cities across the Kingdom, including Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah and Al-Kharj.

“Although our government offers similar programs, including those of new state universities across the country and the King Abdullah Scholarship program, the response is overwhelming,” Al-Shabana noted.

He said that for the students to graduate from these universities at least two years are needed, adding that the trainees are also being taught work ethics and discipline, besides linguistic skills.

He said that qualifications and enrollment procedures are simple and any Saudi student can apply and requirements are available online.

“CoE graduates will not be the technical college graduates of 30 years ago. They will be highly paid specialists, whose passion for the latest technology will help place them at the vanguard of the country’s continued globalization,” he said.

Governor of the General Organization for Technical and Vocational Training (TVCT) Ali bin Nasser Al-Ghafis and the CoE’s vice chairman of the board of directors signed operational contracts in Riyadh in June this year with several education providers. This marked the launch of CoE.

The new era in training will pool the resources of colleges of excellence from the US, UK, Canada, and Spain with a SR4 billion contract training to be offered to Saudi high school graduates free of charge while students get a monthly stipend.

The ambitious projects will help create a stronger and highly skilled national work force, said Al-Shabana, also by catalyzing the development of new national industries in the automotive, aerospace and chemical sectors, among others.

The main objective of the CoE is to train Saudis so they can support and benefit from the Nitaqat program, which nationalizes jobs. The education and training they receive is up to the high expectation of the Saudi market. Students undergo intensive training in the classroom under internationally renowned professors and experts.

The learning center will play an important role in increasing the value of human resources in Saudi Arabia by giving young Saudis a dual emphasis on the acquisition of vocational and technical skills coupled with multiple other skills that employers value, said Al-Shabana.