Awards 2017: Sadara bags Training Initiative/Programme award

Ahmed Al Hadhrami (left), senior media relation specialist, Orpic, presents the ‘2017 Oil & Gas Middle East and Refining & Petrochemicals Middle East Training Initiative/Programme of the Year Award’ to Faisal Algurouni, vice president, human resources and industrial relations, Sadara Chemical Company, for the Sadara Apprenticeship Programme.

Saudi major Sadara Chemical Company has been recognised for having the best ‘Training Initiative/Programme of the Year’ 2017, for its flagship ‘Sadara Apprenticeship Programme’.

“Our initiatives are part of the Saudi government’s directives towards Saudisation. From the beginning, we had decided that 60% of our employees would be freshers, and those would be Saudi locals, and the remaining would be a mix of expats and locals,” Faisal Algurouni, vice president for Human Resources and Industrial Relations, Sadara Chemical Company, said in an attempt to justify why Sadara deserved the award.

“In five years, we have surpassed that figure and achieved 63% Saudisation. And we will continue to work on our goals,” Algurouni remarked.

SNC-Lavalin was chosen as the ‘highly commended’ nomination in this category, for its ‘Vocational Training Programme for Employees’. One of the judges praised the Canadian EPC giant for this training initiative, saying the company is “a pioneer amongst the EPCs/FEED service providers in training Saudi engineers.”