Director of the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf) Ibrahim Al-Me'aiqil has said that it is impossible for any country in the world to employ over 1.2 million female job seekers in one field i.e. education, according to a report published in Arabic language daily Al-Hayat on Wednesday.
He was responding to the wishes of female Saudi job seekers on the list of Hafiz Program (Arabic for "incentive"), a Ministry of Labor program that supports the unemployed and helps them gain employment. He said unemployment among female graduates is increasing because all of them want jobs in the education sector because of "social pressure and interference in an individual's job decision."
Al-Me'aiqil's observations were confirmed when the National Center for Assessment in Higher Education (Qiyas) conducted an occupational aptitude test, the results of which were announced at a press conference here early Tuesday, Saudi Gazette reported.
The Qiyas survey showed that 27 percent of Saudi nationals, who took the test, prefer jobs in education and other social fields like journalism and culture. Qiyas, which was established in 2000 to perform standardized tests to measure students' achievements applying for undergraduate study, surveyed 6,346 Saudi males and females.
A film on the test results showed that 54 percent of those who were surveyed hailed from Riyadh and Makkah regions. About 51 percent of them were students. The aptitude test indicated that only 13 percent showed inclination for professions like law and finance.
Al-Me'aiqil said the Qiyas project aims at receiving more observations on the occupational interests with the objective of developing the labor market.