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.
