(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Focused and long-term investment in developing the skills and creating jobs for young people is expected to promote sustainable economic growth in Saudi Arabia and the GCC as a whole, according to Ernst & Young (EY). More than 15 million young people will enter the workforce in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Egypt in the next 10 years.
"GCC governments have been pushing on multiple fronts to address the issue of job creation with efforts ranging from long-term strategic policies, to short-term desired outcomes," said Bassam Hage, MENA Markets Leader, EY. "Although these initiatives had measurable success in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries, it is evident that there is the need for additional sector-specific efforts," he said
Policy makers and the private sector need to collaborate to catalyse economic growth by capitalising on the number of young nationals available to enter the workforce
EY will be the Strategic Knowledge Adviser at the upcoming Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) 2014 and will launch a report about the perspectives on youth employment across the GCC.
"Our objective is to outline areas for attention which can create an improved dialogue between educational institutions and employers. The study aims to offer insights into the opportunities for creating a more robust human capital infrastructure, in order to bridge the training and preparation of young people with the labor force requirements of the region," said Ahmed Reda, Office Managing Partner, EY Jeddah. "It will look at ways to sustain growth for the economy by merging the gap between business needs and the workforce capabilities to support entrepreneurship and enhance work-related skills," he said
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