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Disconnect between education and job

By By DIANA AL-JASSEM JEDDAH: The challenges women face in the Saudi job market continue to rise. One of the more poignant challenges they face involves not finding jobs in the fields that they studied when at university.

Saudi women are confined to study certain majors such as education, health, business, computer science, literature and Islamic studies. They are not accepted for other subjects such as law, aviation, security, journalism and other engineering specialties.

Two private women colleges have recently opened in the Kingdom. They both offer new majors such as information systems, interior design and special education. However, not all female students in Saudi Arabia can study these fields, as women's rights to study and work is dependent on their guardians.

Despite difficulties facing women in the labor market, there are many who are studying in private colleges subjects for which there are no jobs available for women. Such is the case that after graduation many of these women find it impossible to find jobs in their actual fields of study.

"I graduated with a degree in graphic design from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah two years ago. For the past two years, I have been searching for a job in my field. I've not found anything in the government sector because my major is not listed in the list of government job openings. I am disappointed because this means I will never get an opportunity to work in the public sector," said Rana Ramadan, an unemployed Saudi girl.

"When I decided to search for a job in the private sector, I was looking for a job that suits my field and ambition. I joined a private company as an advertisement designer for SR1,500 a month. After joining there, they gave me additional duties such as accounting and secretarial work... I was given these additional duties without a salary rise," she said.

Ramadan now prefers to stay at home than be forced to work in a field for which she did not study at university.

Al-Anoud Fakhani, a young Saudi girl who graduated in psychology at Effat University eight years ago, was also unable to find a job in her field. As a result, she decided to take a job outside the field of specialty.

"I studied child psychology at Effat University in Jeddah. After graduation, I couldn't find a specialist center that focuses on child psychology. Because of that, I spent about one year without a job," she said. "Recently, my father persuaded me to try another field, which I did. I joined a private medical center and worked as a marketing coordinator. It was difficult to understand the issues at the beginning, but after a few months I became proficient in this," she added.

Manal Shaker, a Palestinian interior designer who studied at Dar Al-Hekma College in Jeddah, decided to abandon her dream to become an interior designer and opted to sit at home to raise her children.

"I was concerned about my future after graduation. I realized that entering the interior design field would not be easy. Such work requires one to work in offices. Unfortunately, these companies prefer male staff and do not hire women designers," said Shaker.

To avoid unemployment, Shaker decided to work as an English teacher at a private school in Jeddah. "I worked at a private school as an English teacher. They hired me to teach the first three grades for SR2,000 a month because I didn't have any qualifications in English," she added.

Statistics published in a local daily by Nahed Taher, a consultant at a private bank in Saudi Arabia, confirmed that over 22,000 commercial licenses have been issued to women, many of who run their own beauty, furniture and fashion businesses.

According to the statistics, women are beginning to realize the importance of investments. Women own nearly 20 percent of mutual funds, while it is believed about SR15 billion of cash assets are owned by women and stored in current accounts.

Dr. Haifa Jamalallail, president of Effat University, confirmed that the university is still finding it difficult to find jobs for female graduates in fields such as architecture.

"Although we don't have many graduates from the Architecture College, we're still unable to find job opportunities for them. So far we've only had five batches of graduates in architecture. Each batch contains about six to 10 girls," she said. "We are targeting foreign companies that exist in Saudi Arabia to try getting them to accept some of our Saudi female workers and engineers. We're still in the preparation stage when it comes to Saudi companies," she added.

Jamalallail said that Effat University has spoken to a number of electricity and phone companies such as STC and Mobily asking them if they could create job opportunities for female graduates.

"They've said they will try to establish a working environment suitable for our female graduates," she said, adding that only three foreign companies have established specialized centers for women engineers.

© Arab News 2011