AIMED INVESTMENTS
Tech investment is the way of the future in Saudi Arabia, and local companies are taking the lead in pouring cash into ambitious digital projects.
What does your business do and what trends do you foresee in the education sector?
We decided to form a company, owned by a number of people from the financial sector, that now works on building and managing large, long-term educational compounds in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. These compounds will be for girls and boys as well as the general administration. Their capacity is between 2,000 and 4,000 students. At present, the operators are local. However, as the interest in the education sector grows, more foreigners are showing their interest to invest. They come and buy the local companies with the idea expand and improve them. Recently, we heard that a general social affairs company from Dubai has established itself in Saudi Arabia and bought a local company for SAR1.5 billion (USD399 million) as part of its plans to serve to 25,000 students. Similarly, there are other major companies that want to expand. Notably, the National Company for Learning & Education (NCLE), our sister company, is the only company in the stock market. It plans to expand and we have found a good solution for them. NCLE currently has 15,000 students across four branches, and it plans to have between 70,000 and 90,000 by 2025. We reckon that their stock price will grow six times over moving forward.
Perched in a quiet neighborhood on the north side of Jeddah, JIC is not just another education facility in Saudi Arabia. Its recent origins are perhaps one of its key assets in building a solid yet flexible program. JIC offers courses during what is perhaps the greatest age of disruption in the history of the Kingdom. When an elite group of education leaders and business owners came together in 2015, Vision 2030 was not even a draft at the Royal Court. Nevertheless, the value proposition and curricula JIC brought to the market served as a forerunner for strategic roadmap Saudi Arabia is determined to follow today. JIC boasts three operational departments: business, design, and information technology. Engineering should be coming soon. Each bachelor degree program combines traditional academic teaching with practical technical training. All of this is linked by peer-to-peer interactions and extensive technological interfaces. Compelling evidence of the school’s adaptable academic curriculum is offered by the dual major option. The business school offers an exceptional opportunity for students who wish to obtain a single degree with two specializations. Students can specialize in two subjects, including accounting, finance, marketing, or international business. Today, JIC’s diverse student body is in a simple yet functional facility. Students embrace the school’s space as their own home, strengthening a sense of belonging that goes beyond the curated mosaic of painted tiles in the backyard. On the surface, this may just appear as a pleasant aesthetic exercise. On the contrary, however, it vividly highlights the school’s focus on self-empowerment and entrepreneurship. Saudi Arabia is in desperate need of new ideas, new business propositions, and innovation. The whole education system must adjust to fill in this gap. For such a young institution, the road towards excellence remains lengthy and rugged, but far from untrodden. The school’s committee has long hiked the intricated paths of education systems both home and abroad, armed with a strong desire to leave an impact on their students’ lives. If the short-term goal is to increase the current number of students from 500 to 2000 in the next few years, the long-term vision is to promote a creative educational community through a global methodology.