JEDDAH — Three UK colleges formed a consortium to secure a £75m ($114m) contract to run a women-only vocational training institute in Saudi Arabia, it was announced on Sunday. The NESCOT consortium consists of three further education colleges including North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT), Highbury College Portsmouth and Burton and South Derbyshire College, a statement said. The Jeddah women's college is one of 11 tendered for by the Kingdom as part of a SR4 billion contract with leading colleges in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain to provide technical training for Saudis in line with market needs. The project comes as the first wave of a concerted effort to raise skills training in Saudi Arabia, particularly for women. North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT) led the consortium, which was chosen from over 500 global organizations from the UK, America, Australia and New Zealand. They expressed an interest in running one of this first tranche of 10 vocational colleges in Saudi Arabia. Each college has been specified and constructed by the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC). “All our hard work and effort has been rewarded with a contract to run a women's college in Jeddah. We know that the skills and expertise of the UK partners will help transform the lives of many women in Jeddah.
We hope this will the first of many such colleges,” said Sunaina Mann, Principal of NESCOT College. Faisal Tabbaa, partner in the Eversheds Riyadh, a global law firm which advised the consortium,said: “The Saudi government is committed to driving skills training across the Kingdom. The NESCOT consortium is integral as this project will provide a template for future partnerships to improving the skill base of the Saudi workforce. International education is a strong driver for the education sector and the chance to use our expertise on this ground breaking project has been really pleasing.” Saudi women are being encouraged to pursue world-class educations, with new schools opening for gifted girls and a greater emphasis on attending university. In 1965, the country's female literacy rate was 5 percent. Today, 60 percent of the college students in Saudi Arabia are women, and their employment rate has nearly tripled from 5.4 percent to 14.4 percent. The King has also launched a generous scholarship program for young Saudis to study abroad. Many are women. – SG
