Riyadh - Mubasher: Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, member of the Board of Directors of the National Company for Cars, Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, met with 50 Saudi engineers, both male and female, who were sent by the company to study electric vehicle manufacturing engineering at Kettering University in Michigan, USA, as part of the “Wa’ed” track of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program.

The meeting came within the framework of the Ministry's efforts to localize the automotive industry in the Kingdom, at the Ministry's headquarters in the presence of the Assistant Minister for Planning and Development, Dr. Abdullah Al-Ahmari, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), today, Friday.

The “Employment and Training of Engineers in the Electric Vehicle Industry” program aims to transfer and localize the latest global technologies in the automotive sector through academic and practical study at Kettering University, a leading American university in teaching specialized industrial engineering. The program combines the study of modern scientific theories and concepts with practical application in factories of strategic partners from the most prominent international companies to develop national competencies and enhance their skills, in an effort to localize the automotive industry in the Kingdom according to the highest international standards, and to qualify engineering cadres to work in the rapidly growing electric mobility sector.

The program, which is one of the initiatives of the Human Capacity Development Program, aims to develop national cadres in the field of electric car manufacturing, design and evaluate smart driving systems, develop practical skills, and enable scholarship recipients to apply networks, robotic operating systems, and cloud platforms in smart driving, which provides scholarship recipients with technical knowledge and expertise through innovation and development in smart vehicle technologies to contribute to smart manufacturing, and enhance knowledge of the uses of artificial intelligence in production to meet future demand and achieve sustainability.

The program attracted male and female engineers in the fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, and artificial intelligence. The program will be implemented over a period of one year, divided into two phases: 6 months of theoretical training, and 6 months of practical training.

The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, in cooperation with the National Company for Cars, announced on May 27, 2024, the start of applications for the company’s introductory scholarship program for employment, within the “Wa’ed” track. The program aims to develop newly graduated male and female engineers in the field of electric car manufacturing, and provide them with the necessary skills in designing electric cars, battery technology and sustainability, and preparing them to work in this promising sector, which contributes to enhancing the growth of the electric car industry in the Kingdom.

The Waed program, which is implemented in partnership with Seer, is an extension of the efforts of the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources to provide training and employment opportunities for national cadres, and to develop them in a way that serves the industry and mining sectors in the Kingdom, in cooperation with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program, Waed track, and in partnership with the private sector.