Job-seekers and professional guidance counselors discussed employment opportunities at the CYC 2030 Forum, which debuted on Thursday in Riyadh.
The forum is a platform to help Saudi youth choose appropriate academic disciplines that will propel them toward future career opportunities on a global standard.
“We have two main objectives to ensure that we are on par with Vision 2030. One is to reduce unemployment among nationals. As of today, their rate for unemployment is 12.8 percent,” the senior director of strategies at the recently created Job Creation Commission (JCC), Abdullah Al-Harbi, told Arab News at the forum.
The second objective is to raise the participation of women in the labor force, he said. “Today the rate of women in the workforce is the lowest in the world at 17.8 percent; we want to raise it to 30 percent as we reach 2030.”
The forum aims to introduce young people to areas of specialization that they have never considered before, and also to convey opportunities on how to build skills, which will, in the long run, reduce the waste of human resources.
The forum had plenty of inspirational words from participating speakers.
A specialist in artificial intelligence, Dr. Mazen Melibari, said during a session: “There are great things, but we only realize their greatness when we see them closely.”
Other speakers at the CYC forum shed light on more obscure industries that could provide jobs.
Dr. Moaz Bouaisha, an expert in 3D printing, said that mastering three-dimensional modeling in industries was one of the most important skills of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Ahmed Ba Rabaa, an international consultant in career counseling, urged attendees not to neglect their hobbies but rather to use them to enhance their work.
“Passion is the cornerstone on which your specialty is based; it is what gives you energy,” Ba Rabaa said.
He also advised job-seekers to look at career opportunities in the labor market to help identify the most suitable work for them.