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[nomad soul]

TVTC in trouble: 94% school grads prefer university
By Fatima Muhammad, Saudi Gazette | Feb 25, 2016
Source: http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/tvtc-in-trouble-94-school-grads-prefer-university/

JEDDAH — Up to 94 percent of high school graduates in the Kingdom prefer obtaining a university degree to receiving vocational training in technical institutes, according to a top official of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC).

“This poses a major challenge for the corporation,” said Rashid Al-Zahrani, TVTC’s deputy governor. Al-Zahrani said 33 universities in the Kingdom attract the majority of high school graduates, negatively affecting the corporation’s training programs. According to Al-Zahrani, the corporation is cooperating with the Ministry of Education to implement a new plan named “Visions” to specify the percentage of graduates who can join universities and technical institutes.

Al-Zahrani said 57 percent of the Saudi population is under 20 years, adding that providing them with training and finding them suitable job opportunities would be a big challenge for the country. “The Kingdom will have to create 4.5 million jobs in the next 15 years and in the backdrop of this, the TVTC’s role in attracting and equipping graduates with different vocational skills becomes quite important,” said the official. He stressed the need to cooperate with the private sector through chambers of commerce and industry and look into different viewpoints to enhance existing training programs.

Al-Zahrani said the corporation seeks to increase its capacity and meet the demand for skilled Saudi workers. To increase the number of students and trainers, said Al-Zahrani, the TVTC will need to establish more colleges and institutes. Currently 259 government institutes and 950 institutes in the private sector serve male and female trainees. Some of the institutes provide training in Arabic, others in English while a third category of 68 institutes provide industrial training. In addition, 36 training centers are run in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior to train prisoners. Special training programs are prepared for people with special needs, martyrs’ families, families in need, orphans and youth who have small and medium businesses, he said.

According to Al-Zahrani, Makkah region tops in terms of the number of TVTC graduates with more than 65,000 students. Some of the graduates have already been employed while others joined the scholarship program. Only 7 percent of the TVTC graduates are on the Hafiz unemployment program. Speaking to businessmen at Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Al-Zahrani said TVTC’s new strategic plan approved by the higher authorities includes four stages: increase capacity, diversify programs, expand the rehabilitation programs and implement quality control.

(End of article)

[Lord T]

That 57% of the population is under 20, and 90% of revenue comes from oil production would suggest there's trouble ahead, but you all knew that anyway.

[Balzac]

Yes Lord T,

Many are saying this is the beginning of the end for the Saudis. Their business model is unsustainable with an oil price so low.

What is strange is that the oil price is really something that they have largely dictated themselves so why they could not see this coming is a real mystery.

Are they so wrapped up in their own ivory towers that they can't see that you have to take care of the little people, the shabbab, or Saudi youth, or you are screwed?

Arab Spring 2.0 is right around the corner it seems.

B

[plumpy nut]

The Shabbab are just as botched and bungled as the princes. The money and corruption shifts from one group to another. The Korea and Japan model show you have to have a dictator that cares about doing something for his country and doesn't have to put up with the dictates of religious nutjobs or the indulgents.