GE hires Saudi women engineers for on-the-job training

Dammam, Saudi Arabia; July 9, 2014: Following GE’s organized visits to Effat University in Jeddah and its participation at the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) Career Fair, the company has offered on-the-job training opportunities to five Saudi women engineers who will be trained across diverse businesses of the company in the Kingdom.

Hisham Albahkali, GE’s President & CEO for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, said: “We participate in career fairs and organize student outreach initiatives to identify Saudi youth talent, and to strengthen awareness among students, particularly females, on the array of diverse job opportunities offered by GE in the Kingdom. Providing coop training opportunities highlights our commitment to diversity and empowering Saudi women in the workplace, which reflects the vision of the government.”

As part of GE’s partnership with different universities in the Kingdom to offer co-op programs to their students, GE has hired four fresh graduate students from Effat University, as co-ops with the GE Power & Water business. Three of them will join the GE Manufacturing Technology Center in Dammam, and another will join the Power Generation Services business in Jeddah. One Saudi female engineer was hired through GE’s participation at the KAUST Career Fair, who will be training with the GE Oil & Gas business at the GE Saudi Innovation Center for three months.

GE has invested SAR 22 million over three years to provide annual scholarships that will benefit 60 Saudi university students. Educational scholarships are provided to 30 students of the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), while 30 scholarships are provided exclusively to female students from various universities in the Kingdom.

With three offices and six facilities, Saudi Arabia accounts for the largest GE workforce in the Middle East with over 1,400 employees driving the healthcare, transportation, power, oil & gas, water, and aviation businesses. More than 500 GE turbines currently generate over 50 per cent of Saudi’s electricity, and the company’s advanced technology supports the production of 150 million liters clean water daily, delivered to the country’s remotest corners.