RIYADH: Over 80 female cab drivers will be soon employed in four airports in Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom continues its social reforms aimed at reducing the gender gap in line with the goals outlined in Vision 2030.
The airports where these women will be employed are King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, and Prince Muhammad International Airport in Madinah.
The hiring process is the first phase of an initiative named Women’s Track to empower women in the fields of transport launched by Saudi Arabia’s Transport General Authority, in cooperation with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, represented by the Tawteen Program-2.
Under the second phase of this initiative, women taxi drivers will be employed in all other airports in the Kingdom.
The initiative will also provide a comprehensive training program for acquiring basic skills for women in driving cabs, in addition to lessons in decorum, customer service, first aid, and the English language.
The TGA said that the Women’s Track initiative will contribute to improving and developing the experience of transport services and receiving passengers, in line with the authority’s keenness to support job creation, increase local content, and activate the role of women in Saudization programs in the transport sector.
The second edition of the Tawteen program is expected to create 170,000 jobs in Saudi Arabia, with 25,000 jobs in the industry sector, 30,000 jobs in tourism, and 20,000 employment opportunities in the health, transport and logistics services, and real estate and construction sectors.
This edition of the Tawteen program also eyes creating 15,000 jobs in the trade sector and other 40,000 employment openings in other areas of the economy.
In a move to support the growing role of women in the national economy, Saudi Arabia has already announced it will include private female drivers as part of its new professions under the Musaned recruitment program.
In February, Saudi Human Rights Commission President Hala Al-Tuwaijri at the 52nd session of the UN’s Human Rights Council revealed that the share of women employed in Saudi Arabia jumped from 21 percent to 35 percent in five years on the back of the Kingdom’s efforts to boost participation in the labor market.
