Deloitte launches professional apprenticeship for students in KSA

Deloitte Middle East has launched a new apprenticeship program for national high school graduates in Saudi Arabia; BrightStart.

Following the inauguration of the Deloitte Digital Center in Riyadh toward the end of last year, the leading Big Four professional services firm has now launched BrightStart, an innovative four-year apprenticeship programme in which aspiring first-year Saudi university students will be invited to undertake parallel professional training at the center – providing the ultimate springboard to a future career.

With the majority of the student participants’ week spent in the office, Deloitte ‘Brightstarters’ will be helping to solve some real market challenges, while the remainder of the week will be spent at university studying for their degrees. This programme structure, Deloitte contends, means that the scheme provides a depth of insight and involvement that goes well beyond the standard university internship.

Those selected will over the course of four years be exposed to Deloitte’s professional experts and will learn the business of the future, as digital technologies and strategies are the focus of the students’ work and studies. According to the firm, the initiative is part of its ‘WorldClass’ ambition and Deloitte Middle East’s commitment to impact 200,000 futures by 2030 through education and skills-building.

“The disruptions that have been brought on by COVID-19 and the challenges that will need to be overcome will undoubtedly foster stronger cooperation and bigger innovations between businesses, governments and countries to ensure that people, and specifically youth, have exciting and rewarding opportunities for meaningful work,” said Deloitte Middle East Consulting CEO Tim Parr.

“To that end, Deloitte has embarked on this apprenticeship program in Saudi Arabia to continue to provide professional and digital training opportunities to prepare them for digital professions,” Parr continued, with Deloitte collaborating with specialised institution Saudi Electronic University (SEU) – the first in the Kingdom to offer blended classroom and online lessons – to launch the new programme.

Based around an “earn-while-you-learn” model, the BrightStart programme is open to ambitious Saudi national high school graduates in their first year in university, with applicants assessed on a carefully designed qualification criteria including high school grades, performance on government-issued examinations, and university acceptance requirements, together with Deloitte-specific assessments.

“The creation of this apprenticeship program provides a unique opportunity for Deloitte and SEU to serve the KSA Vision 2030 together by meaningfully driving the development of a digitally skilled workforce, and make a positive impact in society,” said Mazen Pharaon, who was appointed in 2018 to lead the Deloitte Digital Center. “GCC nations have a clear opportunity to drive forward the next industrial revolution.”