In a national initiative, Labor Minister Adel Fakeih formally launched in Riyadh on Monday Doroob, a national online learning platform to train Saudi students and job seekers to develop skills suitable for the Kingdom’s labor market.

Ibrahim Al-Moaiqil, director general of Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf), said that the online service is a collaboration with the Boston-based EdX.

Al-Moaiqil said the program in the Kingdom is being carried out in partnership with several reputed companies that had come forward to participate in the Saudization program of the Kingdom.

Al-Moaiqil added that the proposed program includes imparting scientific knowledge, practical experience, as well as offering trainees the proper certification which is approved and recognized by major Saudi companies.

He said it will be a comprehensive program to help youths find suitable employment which would give them the needed job satisfaction. On the other hand, he explained that the employers will benefit from skilled workers who would be an asset to their establishments.

In addition to the job-training, he pointed out that the trainees will be given orientation courses in e-learning, as well as basic job skills such as marketing, sales, communications, public relations, technical skills and social interaction with the employers.

The trainees will be allowed to choose their vocational training according to their tastes and temperaments.

The Human Resources Development Fund will bear the cost of the training, Al-Moaiqil said, while the program is meant to be a reflection of the partnership between the private sector and the fund to train a nationalized work force suitable for the Kingdom’s private companies.

Jobs in the retail sector do not require qualifications beyond high school, which is a great advantage for the nationalization plans, as 75 percent of the job seekers have high school certificates. There are nearly 600,000 job opportunities in the retail sector largely occupied by expatriates, according to official estimates.

Hadaf is the prime agency working under the Ministry of Labor to train unemployed Saudi youths. Its role is to facilitate the needs of the private sector by translating its objectives into a reality.

The CEO of EdX, Anant Agarwal, said that there are 3 million students from 196 countries using the portal to learn a variety of skills through the website. He explained that Doroob is available in Arabic for its users but the EdX site is available only in English.