RIYADH: Around 15,000 jobs were offered by 50 employers to young Saudis at the Saudi Job Creation Forum in its first edition and the accompanying job exhibition, organized by the Saudi Management Association (SMA) on Tuesday.
The forum was inaugurated by Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqabani on behalf of Prince Saud bin Salman, the honorary president of the SMA.
Addressing the opening ceremony, the minister thanked the SMA for organizing the forum that promotes job creation for Saudi youths to get into rewarding jobs.
The chairman of the SMA, Dr. Nasir Al-Twaim, also addressed the forum, thanking both Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, second deputy premier and defense minister, and Prince Saud bin Salman for their generous support.
He also extended his thanks to other members of the SMA for their generous support of money and time to promote the association. He in particular valued two honorary members of the SMA for their generous contributions to the forum. One was Sheikh Yousuf Al-Ahmadi, a businessman who pledged a 5,000sq.m piece of land in Makkah as an endowment to set up a training and recruitment center for Saudi youths to be run by SMA, in addition to SR1 million to meet the expenses of running the SMA headquarters. The other was Sheikh Abdulrahman Al- Ghammas who also pledged as an endowment a 5,000sq.m piece of land in Madinah to set up another training and recruitment center for young Saudis run by SMA.
A tour by Arab News showed how enthusiastic Saudi youths were in searching for jobs, especially young women who were seen representing almost 50 percent of those who thronged to the exhibition in search of jobs during the two days of the exhibition.
Displayed jobs were by government and private sector employers. They included hospital, IT developers, banks, training providers, consultancy firms, real-estate agencies, marketing companies, and factories.
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Al-Twaim, who is also professor of management ethics at King Saud University in Riyadh, mentioned that it “was a duty for us to organize this forum which is the first of its kind.”
“Apart from being a duty, this forum comes in line with the government’s move to effectively act to create jobs, especially in light of having almost 11.7 percent unemployment among our work force, mostly of young people,” he said.
“So, we have organized this exhibition on the sidelines of the forum to contribute in fighting unemployment … here we brought around 50 job providers under one roof so job seekers can meet them directly and to know each other face-to-face, and it also eliminates the hassle of commuting for these job seekers,” he added.
“Also, we hope that it will give some insight to Job Creation Commission, which was newly approved by the Cabinet, to generate more jobs for Saudis in this era of transformation led by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, and commissioned by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which bringing jobs to young Saudi is a top priority,” he further said.