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Chapter 18: Training Saudi Arabs to Fill Skilled Jobs

In the 1933 Oil Concession Agreement, Aramco promised to
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set up a training school to be attended on a part-time basis by Saudis in
clerical training positions. Ali Al-Naimi, who was the Petroleum Min-
ister for Saudi Arabia in 2012, began working for the company as a
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gree in Geology from Stanford. He is a superb example of the potential
that many of these men have.

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derway to train Saudi Arabs, but the results were discouraging. In the
period from 1952 to 1954 three developments occurred which were
keys to the dynamic change that ensued. These were:

1. Harry Walker’s work with the foremen and superintendents in
analyzing and evaluating their jobs from a job-ranking stand-
point.
2. Jack Rushmer came to Arabia for the purpose of developing an
intelligence test for Saudi Arabs. Prior to this time, many super-
visors had been discouraged or even given up on training because
many of their men seemed incapable of learning very much. Jack
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ates, a brilliant and innovative plan. To illustrate the content, I
shall explain one aspect. An employee would sit across the desk
from a fellow Saudi Arab, who was the tester. The tester would
ask the employee to observe him closely. He would then fold a
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cil, he would poke a hole through the pattern in a particular spot.
He would then show the employee a picture of a group of papers
that had a hole poked through them. Each pattern, of course, was
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unfold this piece of paper, which one of the samples before you

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