The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) is setting up secondary schools for students who have completed their intermediate courses to serve as a nucleus for the creation of a generation of blue collar workers trained in different trades. Dr. Ali Bin Nasser Al-Ghafis, Governor of the TVTC, said here Tuesday that the graduates of these secondary schools will be able to pursue their higher technical education at technical colleges. He said the syllabi taught at these schools have been designed to produce skilled workers for various industries. These workers will gradually replace the one million skilled foreign workers in the country. Moreover, graduates will be trained to start their own small businesses which will contribute to the country's national economy. Al-Ghafis said there are 35 technical colleges functioning under the corporation's supervision teaching more than 40 specializations. This includes electronics, electricity, mechanics, environment, nutrition, communications, telecommunications, hardware, software, hotels, tourism, civil engineering and architecture. The corporation also has 14 higher technical institutes for women. More than 78,000 male and female candidates have already applied for enrollment in the country's technical colleges. He said the corporation is busy constructing 50 technical colleges and 42 high technical institutes for females in the Kingdom, to be completed in three years. Al-Ghafis said the Corporation has now started preparing the infrastructure for 300 education projects including technical colleges and vocational institutes. Construction will start in the next few weeks. The projects will cost SR10 billion and will be built on a total of seven million square meters in different parts of the Kingdom. Dr. Rashid Al-Zahrani, Chairman of the TVTC in Makkah, said the corporation's branch in the city has organized several technical and vocational training courses for both genders. __
