As part of a plan to entice more talented employees from the island nation, Saudi Arabia inaugurated the Skill Verification Programme (SVP) in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, July 12.
Under its Professional Accreditation Programme, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) of Saudi Arabia launched the programme.
According to Saudi Gazette, in the first stage of the external track of the programme, professionals in five professions—plumbers, electricians, refrigeration/air conditioning technicians, vehicle mechanics, and automobile electricians—were chosen for skill assessment.
In order to improve the calibre of professional manpower on the Saudi labour market and raise the bar of professionalism, the program’s first phase intends to assess the skills of employees in five of the 23 specialisations that the ministry has selected.
The Saudi government hopes to increase productivity through this programme and stop the influx of unskilled professionals into the employment force.
Through two tracks—internal and international—the program’s goal is to confirm that employees in the targeted professions possess the essential capabilities.
The first track aims to evaluate the professional workers who are already present in the Kingdom and does so in collaboration with local testing facilities. The second track aims to evaluate professional workers before they arrive and does so in collaboration with a number of recognised international testing facilities.
The programme has been introduced in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh by the Saudi ministry. In order to best regulate its employment market, the SVP was first implemented in July 2021.
