Saudi aims to nationalise engineering sector

Saudi Arabia is all set to start indigenization of the engineering sector from January 14 in order to generate jobs for 7,000 Saudi engineers in 2021, declared the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) on Sunday.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRDF) will localize 20 percent of the engineering jobs which will cover 117 engineering professions, and generate more than 7,000 jobs. The expected monthly salary is not less than 7,000 Saudi riyals.

The council together with HRDF will make engineering jobs for the nationals through the 'Muehl' platform. The platform collects details of professional job hunters and will provide employment references for engineering establishments and companies.

SCE had exposed more than 3,000 expatriate engineers with counterfeit degree certifications working in the country last year. As a result, the council had decided to conduct professional examinations for foreign engineers and will verify the certificates of expatriates as well as the requirement of their five years of experience.

As per the recent statistics, there is an increased turnout in the employment of Saudi citizens and a decrease in expatriate employment ratio in accordance to many incentives undertaken by the government to localize professions to facilitate graduates to secure employment opportunities.

The 2021 budget overlays major importance to the employment of 1.15 lakh Saudis. The firms are being told to prioritize nationals when the projects resume. The Ministry is also planning to establish an academy to provide adequate training to the nationals.