Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — SEDCO Holding Group launched its all new Riyali Financial Literacy E-Learning Platform with an objective to reach two million young people over the next five years. The launch of the Riyali e-learning platform is the next logical step and constitutes a paradigm shift for a program that was initially carried out in universities. "Riyali Kids" expanded to schools and penetrated the young minds through intensive training courses provided to ambassadors and volunteers. The program signed strategic partnerships with training and academic centers since 2012, because it had set itself a target to physically reach 50,000 young people within five years. This far, the program offered training sessions in 22 Saudi cities gathering 950 program ambassadors and volunteers, each adequately prepared to give the Riyali course to university and school students with aim to maximize the spread of awareness. Developed by SEDCO Holding Group, "Riyali" addresses the need to educate the Saudi population on financial literacy and empowers it with personal financial skills for the 21st century. Riyali aims to educate Saudi youth on financial concepts such as planning, budgeting, saving, investing and borrowing in order to empower them with the personal financial skills required to achieve a desirable standard of living. The curriculum consists in a series of interactive free workshops, 6-8 min video lessons, along with online reading materials, discussion boards and an exam. New materials were also developed to bring the e-learning experience to life, including case studies from young entrepreneurs and celebrities providing their own advice about money management. The success of this online presence is the result of the program's presence on the Rwaq.com platform where Riyali broke a record accomplishing the highest participation rate amongst all available programs. This achievement was preceded by the equally successful launch onto the Doroob platform, with the support of the Human Resources Development Fund. Amr Banaja, vice president corporate communications, marketing and corporate social responsibility at SEDCO Holding Group, said: "Previous successful experiences reaffirmed the need for a financial literacy program, and today SEDCO Holding Group is happy to launch its own electronic learning platform to make Riyali available and accessible to all. It demonstrates the importance to continue raising financial awareness and developing e-learning, and heading towards it." He continued: "The potential audience is huge: 60% of Saudi Arabia's population of 30 million is under 25 years old. SEDCO Holding Group is keen to expand the program's beneficiaries further via this sustainable measurement system." Dr. Kamal Shaaban, CSR manager at SEDCO Holding Group, added: "Riyali has been a success since its launch in 2012, and has involved young men and women, thanks to fruitful partnerships with training and academic centers. This new window of opportunity onto the digital world is a milestone for the program. The Riyali curriculum is enriching and we hope it will meet the same success it encountered on other e-learning platforms. In point of fact, today, out and inside Saudi, the younger generations are ill spenders and it is reflected in their frail understanding of financial literacy or entrepreneurship, let alone investing properly in their futures." Educational CSR programs are expected to create a long-lasting and sustainable impact that can be evidenced and measured. Riyali is but one example. Technology has proven itself to be a valuable asset, and as companies start to embrace technology, websites and e-learning platforms the challenges for most educational based Corporate Social Responsibility Programs can become opportunities by reducing costs, spreading reach and maintaining quality.
