Riyadh – The Ministry of Labor and Social Development in Saudi Arabia affirmed that it aims to raise the number of Saudi beneficiaries from Doroub Program to one million beneficiaries by 2020.

This step falls under the ministry’s plans to accomplish targets of the National Transformation 2020 according to the Saudi Vision 2030.

The platform, inaugurated in December 2014 and sponsored by Human Resources Development Fund, provides electronic training for job seekers from citizens as well as personnel interested in developing their vocational skills.

Doroub platform includes 100 electronic sessions that cover general vocational skills and a number of specialized skills that fulfil the Saudi labor market needs. In cooperation with universities and local and international parties, authorized certificates are given to trainees.

More than 2.6 million visited Doroub platform and approximately 393,000 beneficiaries registered at the platform while 866,000 e-sessions subscriptions were made. Knowing that Doroub is in a quest to develop skills of million beneficiaries by 2020, up to 218,000 was achieved in 2016.

The National Transformation Program 2020 is the first step towards implementing the Saudi Vision 2030 and considering it a methodology and a plan of work in the economic and development fields in the kingdom.

These updates coincide with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development announcement of a new initiative to exert efforts in: developing mechanisms of recruiting immigrant labor and relying on domestic market within a bunch of initiatives that fall under the National Transformation Program 2020.

The initiative’s purpose is to provide adequate job opportunities for citizens through changing the recruitment methodology in which the employer publishes the vacancies on TAQAT (National Labor Gateway) for Saudis to apply first and in case no qualified Saudis were found then the employer is given a visa to this job specifically.