Revolutionizing Tourism Education in Saudi Arabia: UN-backed Scheme to Elevate Standards
In an exciting development, a cutting-edge UN-backed tourism education scheme is poised to revolutionize the training of Saudi workers, ensuring they meet and exceed the highest international standards in the Kingdom.
In a groundbreaking collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, the UN entity responsible for this sector has unveiled a comprehensive six-month training program tailored for institutions in Saudi Arabia specializing in tourism.
Enter TedQual, a sophisticated certification system meticulously crafted by the organization to assess a set of globally applicable criteria, aimed at advancing the quality and training of relevant bodies in Saudi Arabia.
The stage was set for this transformative initiative at ITB Berlin last year, where the Kingdom and the UN World Tourism Organization inked a pivotal memorandum of understanding to introduce TedQual to the nation.
An impressive 50 tourism education and training programs will undergo rigorous evaluation as part of the UNWTO TedQual process, while a commendable 35 initiatives within tourism education and training institutions across the Kingdom will partake in this certification endeavor.
This strategic move will enable a meticulous assessment of these specific methodologies, ultimately raising the bar for standards, as highlighted by the ministry.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, eligibility for participation mandates that the program must lead to the attainment of a diploma or higher qualification, be accessible to the public, and focus on specialized areas within the field.
The TedQual project serves as a precursor to a series of forthcoming collaborations between the two entities, including the development of “massive” online open courses targeting the vast global tourism sector workforce, totaling a staggering 300 million individuals.
These courses will encompass both managerial and vocational aspects, offered in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, and Spanish, catering to a diverse array of learners.
Under the terms of the MoU, the entities will also establish a “Jobs Factory and Tourism Labor Market Observatory,” aimed at fostering the creation of high-value positions through skill enhancement and workforce analysis in the Kingdom.
This ambitious initiative holds the potential to benefit up to 100,000 job seekers and involve a minimum of 50 tourism businesses, signaling a promising future for the industry in Saudi Arabia.