Education | Nescot T
he contract, which is worth £75m, is one of ten that was awarded in the first wave of a process that will see
100 colleges in Saudi operated by international providers by 2020. The Nescot Consortium Jeddah Female College of Excellence, founded and led by Sunaina Mann OBE of North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot), will provide training for women in businesses that they can run from home, such as IT, business administration, beauty, fashion and jewellery design. It will be run and led by Nescot (North East Surrey College of Technology) in Epsom, in partnership with Highbury College Portsmouth and Burton and South Derbyshire College who beat off competition from 500 other institutions. All three colleges have female CEOs and Principals as role models who are passionate about giving Saudi women vocational education opportunities. “Nescot had never previously
participated in such a large project internationally but with current funding cuts in the sector we knew we had to look to diversify our income,” says Sunaina Mann OBE, Nescot’s Principal and CEO of the Nescot Consortium. “We were approached by one of our university partners who had partners who had been invited to tender but who felt that we had more experience to lead this project; they were happy to support our application. “We were fortunate enough to find a partner based in Dubai who had extensive experience of working in Saudi and was able to support us with putting together the business model. It was at this point we contacted UKTI as there was an issue and concerns regarding contracts and obtaining bonds being a public sector organisation. Chris Grayling MP was instrumental in ensuring that we received the right support from Vince Cable’s team, and UK Export in overcoming some of the hurdles we had never come across before, so it was a big learning curve for us and provided us with valuable experience.” After the contract signing Nescot only had two months to view the site and advise the Saudi Colleges of Excellence on health and safety and other issues. The main hurdle was obtaining electricity in the
global-opportunity.co.uk
Sunaina Mann OBE signs the contract for British-run college in Jeddah Educating
isolated area where there was no air conditioning and no testing could be done, but the Saudi government pushed ahead to get everything in place.
Female students were recruited
and interviewed at the Hilton in Jeddah whilst the electricity issue was being resolved. Sunaina Mann found herself designated an honorary man to enable her to make a speech to an audience of men with the women sat behind curtains during the signing ceremony at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh which was an experience in itself. “Being from an Asian background I have grown up through the cultural changes in a society and can still remember when men and women would sit in different rooms at home and at weddings,” she says. “This is one of the reasons I was drawn to this project as education will make a difference to the lives of women in Saudi, and change attitudes towards them, as it did in our culture.” There were 3000 applications for 625 places. “The majority of students are lovely and very committed,” she says. The students will be taught English throughout their course. The first year is the Foundation English
Women in Saudi
British college Nescot has led a consortium of further education colleges to run Saudi Arabia’s first women-only vocational college.
year and from which students will specialise in a vocational area for a further two years (Computing, Beauty, Business, Fashion). Their hunger to learn is amazing,” says Mrs Mann. “The Colleges of Excellence (CoE) thought we were brave by taking on so many students at the beginning of term instead of phasing the recruitment of 625 students over three terms. The parents have been very supportive of their daughters being educated.” Nescot’s experience in running a successful college in the UK has proved invaluable in operating this pioneering institution in Saudi. With an initial contract for five years which may well be extended, the consortium plans to take part in future Waves with the roll out of further colleges by 2020. “With increasing demands, it is important that the female workforce is educated and employable,” says Sunaina Mann. “We plan to train the best students as teachers and enable the Saudis to run their own colleges in the long-term.”
GO
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.nescot.ac.uk
ISSUE 01 | GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY 2014 155
EDUCATION
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NESCOT
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