Culture & Education | Thursday 5 March, 2015 8:09 am |

Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman officiated a graduation ceremony at the Higher Institute for Elastomer Industries in Yanbu on Wednesday. The event saw 57 trainees passing out from the institute.
Ali bin Nasser Al-Ghafees, governor of Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, emphasized his organization’s efforts in supplying qualified Saudi hands required by the Kingdom’s various institutions after providing them with intensive training.
He thanked Prince Faisal for patronizing the ceremony to mark the passing out of the institute’s first group of graduates. “This shows the royal highness’ desire to share the happiness of the graduates and their parents,” he added. Al-Ghafees said the institute has been the result of a major strategic program, which has been carried out with the support of big companies. “This program will play a big role in supplying well-trained Saudis to the private sector.”
He said the TVTC would organize, finance and supervise such institutes with the support of the Human Resource Development Fund.
Alaa Naseef, CEO of the Royal Commission for Yanbu and chairman of the institute’s board of directors, commended the institute’s effective role in supplying highly trained Saudis to the job market, adding that its graduates are capable of managing development infrastructure.
He said the institute has achieved 100 percent Saudization as its trainees and administrators are Saudi nationals. Naseef praised Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan, president of the Royal Commission, for his support to the institute.
He thanked the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals and TVTC for their efforts to establish the institute. He also commended SABIC, Yanbu Petrochemical Company and ExxonMobil for their contribution to make it a reality.
The institute can accommodate 180 trainees annually, while it accepts 60 secondary school students for specialization in sciences after a two and a half-year training program.
The institute had sent 22 university graduates in mechanical and chemical engineering, chemistry, physics and science disciplines to Akron University in the United States for a two-year training program. They have already finished their studies and joined the institute as trainers.