Guiding, Inspiring, and Transforming Saudi Youth
to Become Global Citizens

In Saudi Arabia, unemployment is widely viewed as one of the most important challenges facing the country. Several factors, including high birth rate, low growth rate for the non-oil private sector, and the correction in the Saudi stock market, have resulted in a dramatic decline in the real GDP per person. The government has been pressurizing the private sector organizations to employ more Saudis, but this is not always feasible for the following reasons:

1. 1.Private sector organizations are facing new challenges due to globalization and world trade agreements; to survive, they will require a first class work force.

2. 2.Despite the commendable efforts of the Government, the products of the educational system, by and large, have not been coping with the increasing requirements of the private sector.

3. 3.Most private sector organizations lack the know-how and the financial resources to manage and develop human resources.

4. 4.Most training centers tend to target only the development of skills, and even then not always successfully. No training centers focus on developing knowledge, the capability to learn continuously, and the attitudes appropriate to the workplace. Neither do they provide the crucial component of exposing participants to intercultural experiences and civic responsibilities.

QANTARA is the needed bridge as living and studying in a different country within a foreign culture with different ethnic backgrounds, provides the Saudi participants with an incredibly rich learning environment that assists in developing their self-motivation, and in building a brighter future and a better life for their families. QANTARA holds that care, consideration, understanding, and cooperation are paramount. It believes that a responsible community promoting respect for self and respect for others is an ideal worth striving for. The Qantara community fosters joy, excitement, respect for truth, open exchange, learning, discovery, and enquiry. It is QANTARA's contention that happy, well-balanced individuals who take strength from such a community make an invaluable contribution to the world in which we live.