Today, His Excellency, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Human Resources Development Fund, Eng. Ahmed bin Sulaiman Alrajhi, and His Excellency, the Minister of Education, Mr. Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Benyan, in the presence of a number of partners from different sectors, launched the career guidance and counseling initiative in schools supervised by the Human Resource Development Fund in partnership and integration with education departments in the regions and governorates of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to align educational outcomes with labor market requirements and empower male and female students with the and current and future market skills and requirements.
In this context, His Excellency, Director General of the Fund, Mr. Turki bin Abdullah Al-Jawini, said: “We look forward, with our partners, to promote and implement career guidance in public and community schools, through a group of qualified professional instructors, for the purpose of aligning educational outcomes with the requirements of the labor market and empowering male and female students with knowledge about the current and future skills and their needs”.
He also stated that the call for career guidance is a significant demand in the labor market and that this initiative comes after the launch of the “Career Guidance in Universities” initiative in cooperation with 67 universities, colleges and institutes in August of 2022 G. Hence, the career guidance services were provided for more than 72,000 male and female students at the university level.
Al-Jawini reviewed the most prominent positive results that have been achieved in the career guidance and counseling program in integration with all partners, indicating that the number of beneficiaries of the program during the last 8 months reached more than one million male and female beneficiaries and their satisfaction exceeded 91 percent.
Moreover, he added that in accordance with the results and performance indicators, the number of visitors to the “Subol” portal, according to the statistics for the first half of the calendar year, reached 600,000 male and female visitors, while the number of beneficiaries from the online career guidance sessions reached 17,000 male and female beneficiaries. In addition, 103 instructors have been qualified and 2,000 specialized and professional workshops have been held in order to overcome challenges in the required specializations.
Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for General Education, Dr. Hassan Kharmi, stressed on the partnership between education, the Human Resources Development Fund and the various sectors in this initiative, indicating that career guidance is a comprehensive development program that has been designed in order to help students make and implement informed educational and professional options that help them determine their future and decide their professional destination to choose the appropriate academic path.
In addition, Dr. Kharmi said that the career guidance and counseling program prepared by the Ministry works on developing the student’s competencies in knowing themselves, their potential and educational and professional exploration, as well as career planning for the future in accordance with what has been included in vision programs through the human capabilities development and quality of life programs.
The Undersecretary for Public Education concluded his statement that career guidance and counseling programs for students help in obtaining the knowledge and skills, as well as the necessary experience in order to identify options, explore alternatives, and succeed in society and that these programs prepare students for the future workplace in a better way.