Empowering Saudi Women through Vocational Skills at Educated-Neighborhood Programs in the Time of COVID-19

Educated-neighborhood programs are lifelong-learning projects created by the Saudi government to achieve a positive effect on the economic, social, and cultural factors. These programs provide various training skills that should support Saudi Vision 2030 and help adults to deal with their lives. Therefore, this study aimed to discover how much Saudi women were empowered through the vocational skills being taught at educated-neighborhood programs during the time of COVID-19. The research also determined if there was a statistically significant difference, by marital status and the number of courses, for the Saudi women's responses about their empowerment through vocational skills at the educated-neighborhood programs during the time of COVID-19. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; a self-developed questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The study's sample was female, adult, Saudi learners who were enrolled in Makkah. Saudi Arabia's educated-neighborhood programs to gain vocational skills. The results indicated that Saudi women were empowered with the vocational skills obtained at educated-neighborhood programs. Moreover, the findings showed that there were no statistically significant differences among the women's responses due to marital status. However, there were statistically significant differences among the women's responses based on the number of courses taken. The benefit of the direction was for women who took 5 or more courses. One recommendation from this study was that vocational skills should design in a way that can encourage and empower women for the labor market for the 21st century. [For the full proceedings, see ED613257.]