AccorHotels recently hosted the second edition of the “Women’s Empowerment and Integration Forum” at the Sofitel Jeddah on March 4th, 2018.
The event, which was sponsored by HRH Princess Lamia Bint Majid Al Saud, the secretary general of Alwaleed Philanthropies, focused on inspiring a new generation of young Saudi women to reach the highest level of professional development.
The Women Empowerment and Integration Forum featured workshops by Debbie Simister, director, talent & learning, AccorHotels Middle East; Hessa Al Mazroa, general manager of Suite Novotel Riyadh and the company's first Saudi female general manager; Badr El Ebeid, director of hospitality profession nationalization department – Takamol, and Eman Rajhan, director of Women Affairs Department at Ministry of Labour Jeddah. The speakers covered a number of relevant topics including achieving a work-life balance and creating greater employment awareness within hospitality private sector in Saudi Arabia.
HRH Princess Lamia Bint Majid said: “We believe that women’s empowerment and integration in the workforce is one of the most effective ways of driving social and economic progress, and this goal influences a large part of our work. This supports our country’s target of getting 30% of women active in the workforce by 2030.” Majid also discussed the role of women in the Kingdom and their capacity to shape our future.
The forum, which was open to the public, attracted over 300 attendees including local businesses, NGOs as well as students from the University of Business & Technology (UBT) Jeddah, Dar Al Hekma University and was also attended by government officials.
The second edition of the program was the first to graduate 11 Saudi women manager past December 2017 through Saudi Management Training Program (SMTP), a special management training program developed by AccorHotels to encourage Saudi nationals to enter the hospitality industry.
AccorHotels VP of operations for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria Salah Oumoudden also said that the hotel company is dedicated to hiring more than 5,000 Saudi nationals over the next five years and added that 30% of the workforce will be made up of female employees.
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Jul 13, 2018 , India
Thank you for sharing your views on Women Empowerment.I found this blog very interesting as it talks about empowering women i.e. to encourage women to take a stand for themselves and make them feel stronger to realise their self worth.