About 130 Saudi graduates from the first batch of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques External Scholarship Program, have returned to the Kingdom, and are now in search of suitable jobs, Okaz reported Wednesday. It is ironic that these young students, who have earned a degree outside the Kingdom are now facing difficulty in finding a job. Raed Al-Zahrani, one of the graduates from the group, said he started submitting applications to private and public sectors via the Internet immediately after returning from a university in the Washington DC area. Al-Zahrani said he hopes that the four years spent by scholarship students would be more appreciated once they returned after their grueling experience of study. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, another foreign graduate said the timing of their return is crucial because it coincides with the end of the academic year, which is the ideal time to apply for jobs. “Scholarship students who studied abroad have an edge over other graduates. We should be provided with jobs that suit our qualifications,” he said. Al-Ghamdi said many scholarship students abroad have stayed back to take summer courses and will return in mid-2009, hence missing an opportunity to submit applications for appropriate jobs. Meanwhile, 115 scholarship students have remained in the US to complete their post-graduate studies. The Saudi Cultural Attaché Office in Washington hosted a grand farewell for the students and awarded SR25,000 to each outstanding student of the first batch of the program.
