Culture & Education | Wednesday 29 July, 2015 4:03 am |

The Ministries of Health and Education in cooperation with the Kingdom’s universities launched a program dubbed, “Education and Work,” in Riyadh on Tuesday to help Saudi youth find employment in the public and private sectors. 

A memorandum of understanding was signed in Riyadh between Labor Minister Mufarej bin Saad Al-Haqabani and Education Minister Dr. Azzam ​Al-Dakhil in the presence of chancellors from 28 universities, Technical and Vocational Training Corp. (TVTC) Gov. Ali Al-Ghafis and Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) Director General Ibrahim Al-Mouaikel.
According to the agreement, the signatories together with the relevant organizations present at the occasion, will formulate a comprehensive scheme to provide education plus vocational guidance to the students to enable them to fit into the Saudi labor market without any problems. 
According to an official from the Labor Department, the program will be a joint work to chalk out an action plan to find employment opportunities for male and female Saudi youths who pass out from the Kingdom’s colleges and universities . 
The program would connect the contents and output of education curriculum to help the students with the training needs to suit the private sector enterprises with enhanced skills to fit into various cadres of employment. 
Recently, Al-Dakhil signed an accord with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) under which 5,000 Saudi students will be granted scholarship and jobs in the insurance and financial sectors.
The program was a new scheme in which the ministry will grant scholarships to Saudi students based on market needs and then employ them when they return home after completing their courses.
The agreement was signed by SAMA Gov. Fahd Al-Mubarak at the ministry’s headquarters in Riyadh as part of the third phase of the program of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarships. 
Al-Dakhil said that the signing of the agreement came within the framework of the new methodology being developed by the ministry, which is based on the actual link between current and future career opportunities in various development sectors and scholarship programs abroad.
He pointed out that the ministry had worked with institutions and governmental bodies to identify the need for human resources. Many of these agencies agreed to this partnership program during which the ministry provides their needs for students to be employed immediately on their return after graduation.
On his part, Al-Mubarak praised the efforts of the ministry in scholarships and human resource development programs for the Kingdom. He said the modern vision of the ministry in linking scholarship programs and the actual needs of human resources in all sectors of the state is an ideal solution, stressing that this would contribute to the provision of job opportunities for our sons and daughters on scholarships.