In a workshop held in the Asharqia Chamber:
The professional examination program will gradually begin for expatriate workers in early July
Asharqia Chamber, represented by the Contracting Committee, organized a workshop devoted to discussing the professional examination program to be started early next July. It was moderated by a member of the board of directors and head of the committee, Hamad bin Hammoud Al-Hammad, in the presence of several employees of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development and the program director at Takamul Company Saad Al-Aqeel, on Wednesday, March 17, 2021.
It was confirmed during the workshop, which was transmitted through visual communication technology, that the examination process will be done gradually, and it is expected that all foreign workers in the Saudi market will have passed the professional examination tests within five years.
It is noteworthy that the program is an initiative among several initiatives implemented by the rational government to develop the labor market and achieve maturity in this market by attracting qualified workers with added value, and reducing the phenomenon of unqualified and unskilled workers by ensuring that any worker entering the country obtains the skills for which he was attracted.
The workshop revealed that the program’s plan to compel the renewal of employment licenses will take place gradually during the current year, according to certain mechanisms and taking into account all circumstances. The beginning of next September, while the beginning of next October will be allocated to medium enterprises (4 - 499 workers), followed by small establishments category A (4 - 49 workers) in November, then small enterprises category B (1-5 workers) in January 2022.
The focus will be on several important sectors in the professional examination, which is a thousand professions out of 23 specialties, foremost of which is electricity, plumbing, building carpentry, and so on, as the first nine families will start from the beginning of next July, as the program is not limited to employment inside the Kingdom, but coordination with countries will be done. The exporter of labor, including the most prominent countries, namely India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, and working with them to conduct examinations according to Saudi standards in their country before obtaining a license to practice work in the Kingdom, as the value of granting the examination certificate is 540 riyals for a period of five years.
