Powered by Qaderoon: Amazon’s Persons with Disabilities Skills Training Programme

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24 Aug 2022

15% of the world’s population and 7% in Saudi Arabia have a disability. As a result of limited educational and skills training opportunities, persons with disabilities are challenged to secure decent employment on par with other job seekers.

Qaderoon has recently been engaged by Amazon to improve the chances and sustain the employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector in Saudi Arabia – by conducting a customized skills training programme. Close to 150 persons with disabilities attended this programme in market-relevant skills. Participants who graduated successfully from the programme received advice and facilitation for potential job placements. The programme, initiated in December 2021, had 27 hours of training, and was attended by persons with different disabilities, including cognitive disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, mobility disability, and multiple sclerosis.

The objectives of the skills training program were:

  1. Providing awareness on the importance of including and hiring persons with disabilities as equal effective members of the workforce;
  2. Enhancing the skills of persons with disabilities to enable them to obtain suitable job opportunities.

Several graduates of the programme have successfully gained employment in different organizations and sectors.

The programme proved that in Saudi Arabia, like elsewhere in the world, providing job seekers with disabilities with the appropriate tools and skills, would help them compete for high-quality opportunities in the job market.

Learning & Consultancy Manager and the lead for this project, Kholoud AlHaddad, said: “People with disabilities have a wide range of talents that they can bring to organizations. They can bring productivity, ingenuity, and problem-solving skills to the workplace.“

The General Manager of Qaderoon, Ohood Tarabzoni, added: “Through the Qaderoon Network, we aim to include persons with disabilities in society and the national workforce by providing guidance, advice; training and best practice to businesses and other stakeholders to employ jobseekers with disabilities and serve customers with disabilities, through inclusive environments and supportive legislation.”