The Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF) and Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) signed on Tuesday an agreement to train 20,000 Saudi men and women in the field of mobile phone sales, maintenance and customer service. Abdul Kareem Al-Nujaidi, director general of HADAF, and Ahmed Al-Fuhaid, governor of TVTC, signed the agreement at a ceremony held at TVTC headquarters in Riyadh. Under the agreement, HADAF will meet full expenses of the training and 50 percent of the salaries of the trainees when they take up jobs at mobile phone outlets. The Fund also will extend financial support to Saudi entrepreneurs in cooperation with the National Entrepreneurship Institute. It will also support owners of small mobile shops by providing them with a monthly amount of SR3,000 for a period of two years so as to enable them to run the shops successfully, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Trainees must be unemployed Saudis between the age of 18 and 60. Those who received similar training earlier are not qualified for the training. There are also provisions in the agreement to give training in the basic maintenance of mobile phones and programs for salesmen and saleswomen and customer service. They will also undergo advanced mobile phone maintenance training available at colleges and institutes under TVTC in various regions of the Kingdom. The Ministry of Labor has started implementing an intensive program for the total Saudization of all sales outlets and maintenance shops of mobile phones and their accessories within a period of six months. The ministry started implementing the new Saudization drive from March 10, and by this program all mobile phone sales and maintenance shops have to replace 50 percent of workers with Saudi men and women within three months, beginning from June 6 (Ramadan 1) and 100 percent within six months, starting from Sept. 3 this year. The Saudization drive is being implemented vigorously in cooperation with 10 government agencies, including ministries of labor, commerce and industry, municipal and rural affairs, and the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).
