Skill Verification Program
1. Background
Qiwa is a government platform that helps automate services provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development in Saudi Arabia. As the labor market in Saudi Arabia continues to flourish, Qiwa looked to improve the skill level of workers, enhance productivity and limit the in-flow of unqualified workers into the labor market.
2. Client Requirements
Qiwa saw that an automated system was needed to evaluate the skills of expatriate workers. The system was to allow participating companies to schedule an evaluation for employees at an authorized test center. Once employees had passed their evaluation, the system would continue to store their data and so that it could be accessed by any public user. The application would also need to integrate with Qiwa’s existing database in order to extract company and employee information.
3. The Challenges
Since this was a new project for Qiwa, the scope of work was not well defined and had been changed intermittently. Also, test center schedules were not standard and needed to be adjusted at the level of each and every test center.
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4. The Solutions
The eSpace team worked closely with the Qiwa team to develop the Skills Verification Program (SVP). We had several meetings with Qiwa to ensure all their requirements were met and that the application would adapt to their new needs.
The application allowed employers to book and pay to have their employees evaluated at the nearest test center. Employees would then visit the authorized test center and, using the same application, take the evaluation. The application automatically informs all involved parties if the employee has passed. Once an employee had been verified, the application would automatically save their information in its database so that it could be accessed by the public using the person’s Residence Number.
5. The Outcome
SVP met all of of Qiwa’s needs and more. Using SVP, Qiwa was able to monitor and control the skills of expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia and, hence, enhance the quality of services and stop the in-flow of unqualified workers.
