Shop
Cancel

Jubail Industrial College in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia marks official opening of Jubail-ISA Training Center

  • October 19, 2016
  • Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Industry leaders say the center will help furnish the skilled automation workforce needed to sustain economic growth and advancement in the region

Industry and workforce development officials in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are celebrating the October opening of an ISA training center at the Jubail Industrial College in the country's Eastern province as a major step forward in positioning the region for ongoing economic growth and industrial innovation.

The Jubail-ISA Training Center brings ISA's globally recognized automation and control instruction-as well as its certification review and certificate program courses-to Jubail Industrial City, the largest industrial city in the Middle East and home to one of the world's most advanced industrial and engineering complexes.

"With the opening of the JIC-ISA training center, the college has achieved yet another milestone toward its mission of bringing standards-based automation training and skills instruction on modern industrial technology to the region," states Eid M. Al-Hajri, MD, Managing Director of Jubail Industrial College. "By partnering with ISA to establish the center, we're able to help engineers, technologists and technicians in the region improve their capabilities, skills and knowledge in the essential areas of instrumentation and control, and engineering and technology."

A throng of KSA officials and industry leaders-including ISA Executive Director and CEO Patrick Gouhin-attended the center's official opening on 5 October. (Click here to view photos.)

"The formal opening of the Jubail-ISA Training Center was immensely exciting and a landmark event for all of us at ISA," Gouhin says. "We are privileged to collaborate with Jubail Industrial College to make ISA training easily accessible to the companies and workers in this economically vital region of the world."

Many prominent representatives of Saudi Aramco, the KSA's national petroleum and natural gas company, also attended the opening and highlighted the center's importance in preparing more workers for the area's growing number of high-tech jobs.

"With the continued growth that we have seen in this part of the world, automation and a skilled automation workforce are central to continued economic sustainability and advancement," asserts Soloman Almadi, Ph.D., Senior Engineering Consultant at Saudi Aramco. "The opening of the Jubail-ISA Training Center plants the seeds for a powerhouse platform that will play a major role in our vision and future for industry."

"Simply put, this is a dream come true," expresses Abdullah Alkhalifah, Senior Engineering Consultant with Saudi Aramco's Process and Control System Division. "Having access to world-class automation training and certification programs-right in the heart of Saudi Arabia's major oil and gas hub-is a major milestone and something that industry in this part of the world have been waiting a long time for. This will undoubtedly lead to the development of a new generation of automation engineers and professionals who will be able to serve the Kingdom and help meet its long-term objectives."

Khaled Abusalem, Senior Engineering Consultant with Saudi Aramco's Technology Management Division, says the ISA training center has the potential to serve as an "uncubator for applied research and technology evaluation and as a Saudi Arabia center of excellence in systems automation."

He added that ISA certification gives workers an additional edge in the marketplace because it bestows an even higher level of skills proficiency and qualification-increasingly important for manufacturers seeking to improve quality, efficiency, safety and security.

Below is the specified set of ISA courses that Jubail Industrial College can sponsor, market and conduct under an agreement ISA and the college finalized in April of this year.

ISA technical skills training courses 

ISA certification review courses 

ISA certificate program courses 

More about Jubail Industrial College

Jubail Industrial College, located in the heart of Jubail Industrial City (Madinat Al-Jubail Al-Sinaiyah) on the Arabian Gulf coast, offers two- and three-year diploma programs in engineering and business studies.

The college has its roots in 1978 when the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu established a skills training center to develop skilled manpower required by the Kingdom. In 1982, the skills training center was upgraded into an institute named the Royal Commission Jubail Human Resources Development Institute.

The Manpower Council of the Government of Saudi Arabia issued a Royal decree in 1989 to transform the institute into a full-fledged engineering and business college, named the Jubail Industrial College. This was established to serve the educational and training needs of the newly created Jubail Industrial City and the local and regional community of the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

About ISA

The International Society of Automation (www.isa.org) is a nonprofit professional association that sets the standard for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety, and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure. Founded in 1945, ISA develops widely used global standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; hosts conferences and exhibits; and provides networking and career development programs for its 40,000 members and 400,000 customers around the world.

ISA owns Automation.com, a leading online publisher of automation-related content, and is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org), an association of non-profit organizations serving as "The Voice of Automation." Through a wholly owned subsidiary, ISA bridges the gap between standards and their implementation with the ISA Security Compliance Institute (www.isasecure.org) and the ISA Wireless Compliance Institute (www.isa100wci.org).