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Healthcare sector employment is a viable solution to Saudi Arabia’s youth employment concerns

Healthcare sector employment is a viable solution to

 

Hussein El Hakim, Managing Director, Bayer Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s youth employment concerns

Findings from the recently launched 12th annual Arab Youth survey indicate that 87% of the Arab world’s youth are concerned about unemployment.

Interestingly, 72% of the Middle East and North Africa’s youth also say that since the outbreak of Covid-19, finding a new job is more difficult than before – with 69% of Saudi Arabia’s youth agreeing with this statement.

The latest figures from the United Nations estimate Saudi Arabia’s population to be 34.8 million in 2020, with the Kingdom’s government expecting its population to double to 77.2 million by 2050, indicating a growth of more than two per cent a year.

A population increase of this scale is also expected to create a demand for healthcare services in the Kingdom able to treat emerging lifestyle illnesses associated with modern life and growing middle-income demographics.

And with Saudi Arabia’s median age at 31.8 years and an exponentially growing healthcare sector, the industry poses a bona fide viable solution to appeasing the youth’s unemployment concerns within the Kingdom.

The Arab, and subsequently Saudi Arabia’s, youth employment concerns, coupled with the Kingdom’s undergraduate interest in taking up employment within the healthcare industry renders initiatives such as Bayer’s National Recruitment Programme within the Kingdom, valuable contributors to partially alleviating a longstanding challenge of regional and national youth unemployment.

In the Moving Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare Sector Forward survey, launched by Bayer, and conducted by YouGov, we found that an overwhelming majority (73%) of undergraduates in the Kingdom expressed interest in working in the healthcare sector, citing the prospect of performing valuable and rewarding work as the top reason attracting them to the industry.

Further findings of the same survey revealed a desire to contribute to the advancement of the community, and create a better life for themselves, and others, as the most important purpose for the large interest to take up prospective roles in healthcare.

The sentiments of Saudi Arabia’s undergraduate youth indeed echo Bayer’s commitment to meeting the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030; while also underpinning the motivation behind efforts seeking to empower Saudi talent through job creation that offers young nationals opportunities to advance their lives and those of their communities.

And as major changes continue across the Kingdom as part of the nation’s roadmap towards Vision 2030, the National Transformation Programme’s (NTP) emphasis on healthcare development saw the industry receive 15.6% of the federal budget last year, making the healthcare sector recipient of the third largest share of expenditure in 2019.

Saudi Arabia’s government continues to encourage private sector participation in the healthcare industry as the public sector’s role gradually transforms into more of a regulatory function rather than a provider, as highlighted in the NTP and the privatisation plan.

And representing the best in global technology and business excellence, an organisation like Bayer offers Saudi Arabian youth rewarding career opportunities and avenues to nurture and grow their skillsets, not only to help them realise their full potential, but also secure successful futures in an everchanging world.

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