Saudi suffering huge shortage of engineers

Saudi Arabia is suffering a massive shortage of qualified engineers needed to execute the numerous mega projects the government has planned for the kingdom, the head of a leading university has warned.

Abdullah Al-Othman, rector of the Riyadh-based King Saud University (KSU), said on Wednesday the Saudi market is in need for 240,000 engineers but that there are only 110,000 currently employed in the kingdom, of which Saudis make up only 20%.

Saudi Arabia is embarking on an ambitious economic plan to develop its infrastructure and construct six new cities that are expected to attract more than 300 billion Saudi riyals ($80 billion) in investment.

Al-Othman said KSU has wrapped up agreements with several world class universities, including the universities in Michigan, California, and Singapore, to upgrade its engineering courses, but wider measures need to be taken if the kingdom is to solve the problem.

The Ministry of Labour has said that it has issued 878,737 working visas in the first nine months of this year, showing a 57% increase from a year earlier.

The ministry said that the number of visas issued during Islamic month of Ramadan, which started on September 12, was 90,619, with 50% for engineering professionals.

Shortages of skilled professionals are becoming a concern of all major multinational companies executing mega projects in the kingdom.

Cisco System launched a multi-million dollar NetVersity programme in Riyadh last week to recruit and train Saudi university graduates to become the leading managers for the company in an effort to end its recruitment problem.

Oracle made a similar announcement on Saturday, stating that it plans to build an academy in the new Knowledge Economic City (KEC) in Medina to train Oracle-certified professionals to develop the 25-billion riyal city that is expected to break ground in January.

According to 2006 International Data Corporation (IDC) figures, demand for networking skills in Saudi will exceed supply by 33% in 2009 and there will be a shortage of more than 33,900 skilled professionals.

Saudi Arabia is taking steps to address the problem. The government allocated 25 billion riyals for higher education in its 2007 national budget.

King Abdullah has also sent more than 30,000 Saudi students abroad for higher studies on a government grant. The majority of the students were sent to study engineering.

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