The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) has collaborated with the colleges of excellence at the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) to train 10,000 Saudi youth in architectural heritage that will help professionalize the sector.

It will also streamline the labor market with trained professionals and technicians that will fulfill the requirements of the growing domestic tourism market in the Kingdom.

“SCTA and TVTC have mutually agreed to impart training to more than 10,000 Saudi technicians to specialize in architectural heritage,” a top SCTA official said here recently.

“We are at the beginning of an ambitious program for training 10,000 Saudi youth during the next five years to prepare them to join the engineering and contracting offices and firms in the Kingdom,” said Meshari Al-Naeem, supervisor general of the National Urban Heritage Center (NUHC), an affiliate of SCTA.

Moreover, SCTA will organize a restoration expo next year, with the participation of international companies in an attempt to build national expertise in this field and sign partnerships to train Saudi youth in the fields of mud and stone architecture, repainting on wood, glass, iron doors and panels as decorative works prevalent in different regions of the Kingdom, he disclosed.

He further informed that the SCTA has entered into a number of agreements and partnerships with several Saudi and international universities and global institutions of technical and vocational training to implement training programs ending in the employment of a large number of Saudi youth in different sectors and which will help reduce dependence on foreign workers.

According to him the idea is to groom creative professionals in the areas of restoration and the preservation of urban heritage in the Kingdom to boost domestic tourism.

“Additionally, this program will address the Saudi market’s lack of trained technicians in the field of urban heritage restoration, as the available workers are mostly old craftsmen, while the Saudi labor market needs trained professionals and technicians in these areas,” he underscored.

He also stressed the need to develop the expertise of artisans with the knowledge of local historical experiences.

Al-Naeem informed that the number of engineers in the Kingdom is about 160,000 out which 30,000 are Saudi, but very few of them are specialized in the restoration and preservation of urban heritage.

Significantly, heritage tourism has emerged in recent times as the main attraction for tourists in the Kingdom with Madain Saleh in Madinah province, Al-Diriya in Riyadh and Historic Jeddah listed among the UNESCO world heritage sites.