SCE Chairman of the Board of Directors, Saad bin Mohammed Al-Shahrani said that SCE’s largest investment is teaching, training and raising the Saudi engineer level to be ready to confront the challenges of the market. He added that SCE has made a leap by increasing membership by 35%. SCE has also reduced the falsification of certificates in the sector and preempt counterfeiters by Ejtiaz service and linked the classification with SCE accreditation.
Qualified Engineering staff soon
Al-Shahrani said in an interview with "YAHLA 2030" program on Rotana Khalijeea TV that the long-awaited engineering staff has reached its final stages, pointing out that the efforts of the previous councils carried it to advanced stages, and was carried out by the independent committee entrusted to committees of Experts and the Civil Service. We have completed the file and answered all queries pending completion of the project by the Ministry of Civil Service.
Membership and employment
SCE Chairman pointed the decreasing number of non-Saudi engineers in SCE membership down to nearly 149300 while they were over 194 thousand, last year. He explained that the market needs engineers in all specialties. SCE has developed programs to empower and replace jobs with Saudi engineers.
He stressed that joint work with the Ministry of Labor and major companies, government projects and the requirement of certain percentage in major projects with the employment of graduates at 10% of the major projects will reduce the difference in the market between Saudi and foreign engineers.
As regards the requirement of experience in employment, Al-Shahrani said that SCE has worked diligently to establish controls to limit the recruitment of foreign engineers by setting a minimum of five years of experience, and launching Ejtiaz service to verify the certificates and experience before entering Saudi Arabia, while the Saudi does not require experience. there are some parties that attract specific experiences to work for quality projects.
Initiatives and milestones
Al-Shahrani unveiled the launch of the ideas and innovation initiative to assemble and organize the ideas of creative engineers so that we can set up an information bank for it. A committee will evaluate the ideas presented and establish a business incubator to enable the engineers to apply their ideas. He added that the engineering conference in Makkah will focus on engineering education and Innovation, and will see the award of engineering excellence to honor the outstanding and support the creators.
In addition to the latest projects and initiatives, SCE has launched Mumaris platform to serve the engineering offices, update and develop their information, print licenses electronically and print engineering reports.
Code Application
Al-Shahrani said that one of the most important milestones of this phase is the implementation of the Saudi Building Code, in which SCE is a member of its committee, which is based on the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO). It has contributed to the establishment of the requirements and specifications for building and management of projects and constructions in cooperation with the American Council for Building Code. He pointed out the training and qualification of Saudi trainers to conduct relevant courses.
Employment and training
Al-Shahrani denied rumors of high figures of engineers' unemployment, pointing out that the figures indicate that it is in the range of 5 thousand and 5500 unemployed. He added that the number is low compared to existing opportunities. He stressed that employment is not impossible and that unemployment can be eliminated, if efforts of relevant bodies to create jobs for them have been enhanced, whether through dealing with government agencies or communicating with large enterprises.
Al-Shahrani said that SCE pays a large part of the cost of courses with the desire to diversify the courses and make a large number of them free or at nominal prices, stressing that SCE will remain non-profit, although the budget is self-operating.