Culture & Education | Wednesday 15 April, 2015 3:53 pm |

With nearly 50 years of uninterrupted presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) proudly joins INJAZ Saudi Arabia, a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, in announcing The Little Engineer Program’s debut in Saudi classrooms this month. The program is designed to inspire student interest in science and math education, and to consider studying engineering, which will lead to their active role in supporting the Kingdom’s innovation economy development plans.

The Little Engineer Program is an Arabic adaptation of the popular Engineering is Elementary® curriculum for teachers originated by The Museum of Science, Boston. The program’s debut in Saudi classrooms is a culmination of Raytheon’s sponsorship and partnership with INJAZ Saudi Arabia, working with the Museum of Science, to culturally adapt and translate curriculum and materials. This initial phase of the Little Engineer Program will reach more than 2,700 students in a dozen Jeddah schools, as well as in the Eastern region of the country through sessions at the Scitech Center in Al Khobar.

“The Little Engineer Program opens up new horizons for the students to choose engineering as a path of education and professional work in the areas of industrial and optical engineering, package and mechanical engineering, and other engineering applications,” said Nael Samir Fayez, member of the Board of Directors and CEO of INJAZ Saudi Arabia. “In coordination with the Museum of Science, Boston and Raytheon, the program offers several engineering activities that will be experienced by nearly three thousand students in the first phase with the help of volunteers and more than 740 hours of work on the total program.”

Latest statistics compiled by INAZ Saudi Arabia bring to light the Saudi market’s need for engineers. The Kingdom graduates 1,400 engineers a year while the local labor market requires 3,600 engineers annually and studies confirm that Saudi Arabia would need 70 years to cover this growing demand if engineering graduate rates remain the same.
“Listening to leaders throughout Saudi Arabia, we recognize the shared priority, and its extreme importance, to inspire young students to pursue math and science education so that they will become innovators of tomorrow,” said Louis Laroche, President, Raytheon International, Inc. in Saudi Arabia. “Together with INJAZ Saudi Arabia, our hope is that today’s “Little Engineers” will be the bright engineering talent of our future to cultivate new innovation and technology development in the Kingdom.”

Plans are in development to expand the Little Engineer Program’s initial reach to five thousand students later this year with additional deployments in Saudi schools including Riyadh.

This collaboration with INJAZ Saudi Arabia is only one of Raytheon’s efforts to promote math and science education in the Gulf region. The company’s interactive MathAlive! exhibit has been touring the area since November 2013, and been experienced by more than a quarter million visitors at stops in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Venues in other Gulf countries are being explored to continue the culturally customized exhibit’s five-year journey in the Middle East.