The story of the Saihati Training Center goes back to the beginnings of Gulf SoL, and demonstrates the power of personal commitment and a clear vision for the future.

Sh. Ibrahim Saihati is a Saudi businessman in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province. He and his wife, Shadia Saihati, have stakes in Saihati Industrial Services and Tamimi & Saihati Transport, called Taseco.

Click here to see Saihati’s interview.
(MPEG movie format for broadband)

The Challenge
After attending Shaybah Café in the spring of 2004 and examining many of the challenges facing the Kingdom in the coming years, Ibrahim Saihati vowed to do something to make a difference. He thought of the many young, unskilled Saudis who came to him seeking employment and the sadness he felt in not being able to help them. Rather than hope for a change in the future, he decided to make the change himself and start a training center where young Saudis could gain the skills and knowledge to take control of their own destinies.

He contacted several other Saudi businessmen who offered to support his idea. When those men took their ideas to their company boards, the proposals to get involved were rejected as impractical and uneconomical. Undaunted, Ibrahim talked to his wife, Shadia, and told her he was going ahead with the training center alone. He asked for her support. Although Shadia was not convinced it would work, she decided to back her husband in this Herculean task.

“I decided to choose young boys between 18 and 25 who had never worked before. I didn’t ask how much money it would cost; I said I will do it. But now I look at it as an investment,” Ibrahim said in a recent interview. “I may not get it today; it could be three or four years before these boys become skilled tradesmen or be developed into managers. So I’m investing in the future and hoping the returns will come later.”

The Facility
He initially hoped to build a center capable of training hundreds of young Saudis, but going it alone he had to scale back his plans. As news of his resolve spread, business colleagues across the Kingdom donated men and materials to get the center built.

In November 2004, the 560 sq. meter Saihati Industrial Training Center opened with 50 anxious young Saudis awaiting the cutting of the ribbon so they could start training. Now the young men learn important skills, such as welding and machine-shop operations. Some learn how to repair electric motors, and all of them spend class time each day learning English. Two of the original students had to leave the course, but the remaining 48 have been diligent in taking advantage of this rare opportunity to change their lives forever. Click here for pictures of trainees.

Parents beam with pride over young men who are climbing a path to a better tomorrow, and they see a change in their young men who they say are more purposeful and happy to have the opportunity.
Shadia now runs the training center, and over the months since it started she’s become convinced that it was a great idea, and she’s very happy and proud to be a part of it.

Future Expansion
Minutes after the ribbon cutting for the new facility in November, a power shovel dug into the earth of a vacant area on the Saihati Industrial Services property. This groundbreaking was for a 2,800 sq. meter training facility that will handle 250 young Saudis. Some of the same companies whose boards had questioned the practicality of Ibrahim’s original plan have now come on board, helping to bring Ibrahim’s original vision to fruition.

Salim Al-Aydh—the Founding Chair of Gulf SoL
At the controls of that power shovel in November 2004 was Salim S. Al-Aydh, a senior executive of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s giant oil-producing company. Al-Aydh is the founding chairman of Gulf SOL and another man committed to creating a better future for the generations to come.

“Back at the forum in 2003, Salim Al-Aydh gave us a wake-up call. I left that forum a slightly changed person. Before I knew there was a problem, but I did nothing about it. After I learned about the size and the magnitude of the problem, and the horrifying future we face if we do nothing about it, I was willing to do more about these things,” Ibrahim said.

“In the years to come, I will be older and wiser, but I’ll be able to look back to the date of the 2003 Forum and I will tell my grandchildren that Salim Al-Aydh is the man who made the difference,” he said. “On behalf of my grandchildren, I want to thank him, and I’m very appreciative of what he’s done.”

And in the years to come, at first 10s, then hundreds and eventually thousands of young, unskilled Saudis will be appreciative of the lives and careers they have built for themselves essentially because one man, Ibrahim Saihati, had the determination to make a difference.

--Stephen L. Brundage

Click here to see Saihati’s interview.
(MPEG movie format for broadband)