Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with multiple organizations to develop a National Information Technology Academy.
“Today, we have among us leaders in the ICT market who come
with a strong corporate social responsibility,” said Yousef Al Ulyan, information technology executive director at Saudi Aramco. “Through strategic
partnerships and collective efforts, we will effectively enable the academy to
meet its objectives and bridge gaps where approximately 35 percent of the ICT labor
market is missed — primarily for not having the right skill mix in the ICT
workforce.”
Organizations involved in the MoU include the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), the Communications and
Information Technology Commission (CITC), the Technical and Vocational
Training Corporation (TVTC), and
companies such as Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Huawei, Wipro, SAP,
Cisco and Mobily.
“The National IT Academy facilitates the creation of a
thriving, diversified economy that will provide higher economic profits and
ample opportunities for higher education, training and development, and
entrepreneurship,” Nabil K. Al Dabal, general manager of training and development at Saudi Aramco, said.
Al Dabal said the next steps in the process involve developing a board of trustees and a tech steering committee.
