Al Tarbyah Al Islamyah school in Riyadh has been awarded the prestigious Dale Carnegie's International Leadership Award in recognition of the pioneering work that the school undertook in the field of education. Established in 1985, the award is granted to companies, organizations and institutions that lay special emphasis on the development of their human resources, innovation and organizational creativity. “It is our pleasure to present the award to the schools for their work and commitment in developing their students,” Peter Handal, Chairman and CEO of Dale Carnegie Training International said. “It is the first school in the region that we have given the award to and we think very highly of them.” Handal presented the award to the School on Jan. 30 night during the Dale Carnegie centenary celebration ceremony at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. “I am delighted to be here,” he said. “It is a very impressive event as we celebrate our 100th anniversary.” More than 900 female students from Al Tarbiyah Al Islamiyah Schools have graduated with the “Wathek” (Confident) certificate internationally known as ‘Generation Next'—a youth developmental training program that helps build self confidence, communication skills, attitude control, managing stress, leadership, team work and positively influencing others. The award has been presented to approximately 300 organizations worldwide. Past recipients have included The Ford Motor Company, Coca Cola, Adidas, Boeing, Four Seasons Hotels, Daimler-Chrysler and SAS Scandinavian Airlines. Being the first school in the Kingdom to adopt the program for their students, Al Tarbiyah Al Islamiyah Schools integrated the program within their curriculum, and provided the program to all their intermediate and secondary levels. The 12-week program designed by Dale Carnegie Training enables youth with skills needed to achieve a successful life, in university, school, home and work place. To measure the effectiveness of the program, Ertyad Training, Dale Carnegie International franchisee in Saudi Arabia conducted a study through self evaluation techniques students responded to prior, during and post “Wathek”. The results indicated 91% of the students increased their respect to other peoples' opinions, point of views, and feeling, with 90% of students stating they increased their team spirit and effectiveness and 88% increased their self confidence after taking the program. Executive Director of Ertayd's Female Department, Ms Suzan Al-Zawawi, explained that Ertyad gave such program as an in-house training within the students daily schedule. The program does not only build the students character but by the Counselor of Education, they are later accredited as college credits to those who choose to pursue their studies in the US, for example. “ Watheq program supported an earlier program by the school, entitled “The Mohammadean Woman” which was also meant to stress the value of the individual through following the Sunnah of Propher Mohammad (PBUH). “The program which started with 300 students on its first trial, ended up now with more than 900 students. It had dropped the rate of absence and had helped each student develop in one or more of the stressed fields,” she added. Founded in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has evolved from one man's belief in the power of self-improvement to a performance-based training company with offices worldwide.
