In an effort to draw in more talented employees from Sri Lanka, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) inaugurated the Skill Verification Programme (SVP) on Wednesday.
In the first stage of the external track of the programme, which is being implemented under the Ministry’s Professional Accreditation Programme, five professions—plumber, electrician, refrigeration/air conditioning technician, automobile mechanic, and automobile electrician—were chosen for skill testing.
The programme has been introduced by the Ministry in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. In an effort to best regulate its labour market, it implemented SVP in July 2021.
The first phase of the SVP intends to validate workers’ skills in five specialisations out of the 23 selected by the Ministry, with the goal of increasing the quality of the professional workforce in the Saudi labour market and raising the level of professionalism.
The goal is also to boost productivity and stop the influx of unskilled professional labour into the Kingdom’s labour market.
Through two tracks—internal and international—the SVP seeks to confirm that employees in the targeted professions possess the essential skills.
The international track works with a number of recognised international examination centres to examine professional labourers before their arrival.
