Foreign scholarship tied to employment

JEDDAH: The Education Ministry has decided to link the government’s foreign scholarship program to employment.
The move aims at not only creating jobs for the graduates of foreign universities but also to meet manpower requirements of various government departments and agencies.
The ministry has already started the revised program by signing agreements with various government organizations such as Saudi Arabian Airlines, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and Saline Water Conversion Corporation.
“Your Job Your Scholarship is the slogan of the ministry’s new program that aims at signing partnership with various government agencies in order to send qualified students on foreign scholarship in accordance with their actual need from specialized manpower,” a ministry official said.
The new move, he said, would boost the Kingdom’s economy, adding that it would also realize the hopes and aspirations of the Saudi leadership.
The official said: “The new program has nine objectives, primarily to find suitable jobs for graduates in various development sectors. Another objective is to give priority to specializations required by the country.”
Sound distribution of manpower, training of workers with world-class standard, sending of students to specialize in jobs immediately required by the Kingdom and enhancing the Kingdom’s competitiveness are the other goals.
“It also aims at adding value to the program to make it distinct and more impressive and expanding the horizon of its specializations,” the official said.
The foreign scholarship program began in 2005 and during the past 10 years more than 200,000 students were sent to pursue their higher studies in reputed international universities in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
According to a report issued by the ministry, 38.7 percent of students were sent on scholarship to specialize in science, engineering and industries.
There was an annual increase of 10 to 30 percent in students who obtained scholarship for higher studies, including doctoral and fellowship programs.