The Ministry of Labour seeks to find a unified umbrella to frame the work of the TVET related sectors as part of its implementation of the objectives of the National Strategy for Human Resources Development 2016-2025 which has a direct follow-up from his Majesty.

In its response to “Al-Anabat” inquiries regarding the goals of the plan and the aspects of the TVSDC law, the Ministry announced that it is working to achieve strategic goals and address distortions in this sector in accordance with international best practices.

The Ministry indicated that the government is very  keen to find one umbrella for this sector through a modern law that is compatible with the outputs of the strategy, its goals in order to frame the work of the concerned sectors, noting that a committee was formed under the chairmanship of the Minister of Labour and the membership of the Secretary-General of the Ministry and representatives from the public and the private sector, where the committee initiated a Laws related study on vocational training and prepared a draft law called it (TVSD Law).

The Ministry indicated that the TVSD law came as an implementation result from the National Strategy for Human Resource Development, to address dispersal, duplication and strengthen the role of the private sector, where two laws were abolished to achieve this goal.

The Ministry indicated that the draft law was sent with justifications to the Legislation and Opinion Bureau to proceed with the process of approving it according to the rules.

On the most prominent aspects of the TVSD law, the Ministry indicated that ‘’a body called (the Technical and Vocational Skills Development Commission) was established to supervise TVET providers, organizing their work, evaluating and monitoring their performance, accreditation, and supervising the implementation of TVET programmes’’.

The Ministry affirmed that a “TVSD Council” was formed instead of the ETVET Council to upgrade the level of TVET in a way that helps to develop human resources, achieve the requirements for comprehensive development in the Kingdom and coordinate with sectoral skills Councils formed by the private sector, civil society institutions and experts to define the sector’s needs and priorities in terms of programmes, vocational skills and competencies that advance the sector professionally and set the occupational standards, processes and outputs of the educational process of training and follow-up their implementation.

According to the Ministry, the Council will work with these sectoral teams that have developed, such as the (Water and Energy Sectors Councils), and the work is under way to form six sectoral Councils.                The launch of these Councils is one of the most important outcomes of the National Strategy for Human Resources Development 2016-2025.

According to the law, a Fund will be established in the Commission as a successor for the ETVET fund to support TVET activities and develop skills for employment with private sector enterprises and to enable individuals, families and unemployed to engage in work and production in order to contribute to combating poverty and unemployment in the Kingdom.

The Ministry confirmed that in parallel with sending the draft law related to TVET, the work is continuing to develop the infrastructure of the vocational training institution to keep pace with its counterparts in the private sector through several main pillars: a partnership with the Crown Prince Foundation, surveying the capabilities, technical assets, and infrastructure of institutions operating in the sector, signing partnership agreements with the private sector to expand the establishment of centres of excellence, increase the percentage of female participation in vocational training, the rehabilitation of the private sector institutions to enable them to deal with educational and technical issues related to education and training.

In another context related to the reform of the TVET sector, the Ministry indicated that it is necessary to review the Law of Organization of Professional Work No. 27 issued in 1999, where the task of implementing it in the Vocational Training Corporation is entrusted. The law includes three main components: classification of workers into categories, classification of places of practice into categories, and occupational inspection.

The Ministry indicated that the law regulating vocational work aims to ensure the quality of vocational services provided to clients, preserve their rights, reduce wrong occupational practices, develop the occupation and vocational workers through ongoing training programmes, and setting the occupational standards.    

The Ministry indicated that this law is one of the important economic laws that contribute to raising the level of the economy and encouraging investment in the Kingdom, the task of organizing vocational work will be transferred from the vocational training corporation to the Ministry of Labour. Accordingly, it was proposed to amend some articles of the law regulating vocational work, and it was sent to the Prime Minister and is currently under discussion in the Legislation and Opinion Bureau.