IPD - Youth Employment
Investing in youth education, especially for young females, not only contributes to Group-wide goals but is also a manifestation of Al-Dabbagh Group’s decades-long commitment to creating multi-generational wealth.
Helping graduates find work
IPD (International Project Developers Group) was founded in 1999. Its subsidiary companies are committed to provide world-class quality products and services to the construction, infrastructure, and project development sectors, primarily catering to a diversified set of segments such as power, oil & gas, education, analytical R&D and hospitality in the region.
IPD teamed up with Saudi Logistics Academy to upskill young graduates. This provided a great opportunity to focus on gender equality in recruitment.
The challenge
Youth unemployment is 30%, four times that of adult unemployment in Saudi Arabia. This is due, in part, to a gap between the skills that employers are looking for and the skills young graduates have.
The industries that IPD operates in are mainly traditional manual labour roles. These industries have low rates of female representation.
IPD wanted to help bridge the skills gap between employers and graduates, and increase female representation within their businesses.
The response and results
IPD worked with Saudi Logistics Academy, in partnership with the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF), to upskill young graduates.
In 2021, IPD recruited all of the 15 graduates who took part in the program. This represented 31% of their total annual recruitment.
Over the year female representation has been increased by 30%. Big strides have also been made to increase representation in management roles and at Group level. At the end of 2021, 39% of Al-Dabbagh Group’s employees were female.
IPD is at the start of their sustainability journey and look forward to making a much bigger impact over time.