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The Experience of TVTC in the Trainees Admission
Technaicl and Vocational Corporation
Saudi Arabia

The Problem

The online application and admission of trainees was the biggest concern of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) because, the TVTC trains its students in technology and attempted to make its transactions electronic, but the old system collided with the Corporation’s orientation. This was because formerly, during the admission you see queues of applicants and charts for identification and classification of applicants according to their result marks and large numbers of employees who receive the applications for Colleges of Technology, Vocational Institutes and Girls Higher Institutes. This made admission very difficult and made it even more difficult to have a fair admission that ensures that every applicant got a fair chance at the college or institute where he/she applied for.
Thus, in the past, the admission period allocated for receiving applications was two weeks distributed according to the marks and percentages of applicants then came the processing period which was not less than one week in most colleges. But now the case is completely different. Admission now requires not more than two weeks, just to give a chance to those who did not apply earlier to apply within two weeks time without specifying percentages of students because the system accepts all.
Formerly applications were done manually, the applicant received the applications chart, knows the suitable day for the marks and percentage he/she obtained and then he/she came to the College he/she wanted to apply to so he/she could present his/her file which contains copies of his/her certificates. The sorting out of applications was then done manually; this in turn caused a lot of problems especially in big colleges which received each semester thousands of applications. There are 7 big colleges; each of which admits about 3000 students every semester. The total number of applicants for the first semester this year 2010 was 36495. After the sorting out of applications manually, the applicant must continue to communicate with the college in order to know the date when successful applicants’ names will be published and whether he/she gained initial admission or not or whether he/she is among the reserves.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The advantages of electronic online applications to any of the Colleges or Institutes are many. The applicant does not travel thousands of kilometers unless he/she was sure he/she gained admission. The admission is announced to him/her through an email or an SMS. He/she sends copies of his/her certificates and ID card online to verify his/her identity. The sorting out is done here electronically according to marks received by the applicant and his/her desires; and then they will be allocate to the relevant colleges, all this is done in a few minutes time. As for the sorting out of applications, this is usually done within a few minutes i.e. the same day, during which all applications must have been processed and distributed among the various sections and each applicant received an initial admission through an SMS and time to receive documents by the college was indicated.
In the past, the admission period allocated for receiving applications was two weeks distributed according to the marks and percentages of applicants, then comes the processing period which was not less than one week in most colleges. But now the case is completely different. Admissions now requires not more than two weeks, just to give a chance to those who did not apply earlier to apply within two weeks time without specifying percentages of students because the system accepts all.
The number of applicants in 2010 has reached 61,087 due to the fact that the number of computer and internet users has increased greatly (According to statistics published by the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission, computer users in the Kingdom in the year 2010 have increased to 41%.), in addition to admission and registration services which are provided through the internet.
The advantages we gain from using the new system are: saving time, energy and money because we used to waste time, energy and money in receiving applications, sorting them out and looking into complaints from mistakes which are human in nature. As for saving effort, here we exploit the services of all, for example the student registers himself / herself online, the system receives the students’ data, saves them, organizes them, checks them and sorts them out, therefore the employee is alleviated from tremendous work.
Saving money could be seen in the few officials employed and who carry out the work while in the old system overtime was paid to employees to finalize the work and also in employing some trainers to help them finalize the work quickly.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Before establishing any system, the views of experts, users and analysts must be taken.
Our unified admission system was built after holding was 5 workshops with the most experienced employees in the field especially those in the Trainee Services management. This is because they are the people who operate the system and know it best.
The system was also built in accordance with the admissions and registration regulations at the TVTC which may vary in Colleges of Technology and Vocational Training Institutes and Higher Girls’ Institutes.
The system analysts and the programmers are the people who design the system. Those who propose solutions are the analysts; the executers are of course the programmers while the contributing partners are the admission and registration employees at male and female colleges and institutes.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
It is clear that the TVTC is highly pressurized during admissions time, therefore the technological solution which is the core of the Corporation’s work is the best solution to save time, effort and money and also achieve justice and fairness among applicants (we had described that while answering the first question) as a result, a study and analysis of the old admission system was done and meetings were held with the associated managements, and then the appropriate technological solutions were proposed and submitted to the related committees. After that a plan for executing the system was set and the design and development continued until all phases of the project were completed when all concerned parties tested and approved it and then the system was launched as a portal for applications for admission to Colleges Technology and Vocational Training Institutes.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The project was implemented in several phases. We can summarize these as: the analysis phase, the designing phase, the development phase, testing and approval by the Quality Department phase and then came the inauguration phase followed by the actual implementation and follow up phase.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The challenges of developing a completely new solution comes with many problems: there was a lack of enough data on which analysis was based. The sources of data were multiple and therefore a little bit confusing. Numerous meetings were held with people from various organizations. During the development there were diverse requirements. Also points of view among analysts varied greatly during the analysis process. Another problem we faced was the lack of highly trained and skilled manpower to deliver the assignment on time. The last but not the least was the problem of transfer of officials to other sections and departments during the implementation phase.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Because there is a Department for designing and producing software at the TVTC i.e. the Information Technology Department, the project was designed by human resources available at the Department without any financial allocations for the project from outside the TVTC budget. A team which consists of the Manager of the Project and two program Developers was formed and who implemented the project entirely. Then the project was assigned to a developer to follow up at each admission time and implement new requirements so that these will be specified before the next admission season.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
With the huge development in the electronics online system, we can't' say there is anything permanent. So far as you have started electronic work then you have started a renaissance that must be developed in order to continue reap the benefits. Everyday a new e-service is added to meet the needs of your staff and their reality and eases their work and maintains your earnings.
The elimination of paper work after years of dealing with it could not be stopped once and for all abruptly, but it should be done step by step taking into consideration the speed of the development and the electronic solutions.
With every step of its development, the demands for development increases.
Also with the development of services, you will observe the increase in the number of users which increases your enthusiasm to add new services that gets better response from users.
The number of beneficiaries from the online admission for the year 1430H, is as follows:
The total number of processed applications to Colleges of Technology, Female Institutes and Military Training Centers was 111,802 applications. These could be distributed as follows: 73,067 applications were processed at Colleges of Technology Diploma Certificate Section. 3,948 online applications were processed for Bachelors’ Degree Section; the total is 77015 online applications at Colleges of Technology. As for the Girls Higher Institutes the online applications totaled 24,540. The military Training Section received 10247 online applications.
As for the second part of the question, the system is very flexible and we can change a lot of features or admission and registration in TVTC can replace them with other characteristics. As for adding services and new admission portals, this could be done easily and flexibly and could easily be controlled.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
1. Apply technology in admission and registration systems for all sectors of TVTC.
2. Facilitate the admission process to the trainees who wish to join the colleges or institutes.
3. Achieve justice and fairness in the sorting process, where everyone is convinced that the system was applied to all, and that the sorting depended on his/her marks, grade and certificate.
4. Opening the admission for all trainees, whether from the same region or another region and facilitate this process for them as it is done through the portal.
5. Save application files for trainees where the files and certificates are not delivered manually in order to ensure initial acceptance of this and ensure that no loss of files during sorting.
6. Facilitate the process of Admission and Registration to the staff as most of the work is done electronically.
7. The employee is linked in all his/her work by Information Technology, each employee is supplied with a computer in order to carry out his/her job efficiently.
8. The creation of a new and distinct IT working environment for the staff of the TVTC.
9. Raise the level of performance and empower the employee to work from anywhere outside his/her office.
10. Documenting and archiving work automatically and easily review the data and verification.
11. Provide a database rich with information and also provide accurate statistical reports to senior leadership and decision-makers.
12. There is now more transparency in admissions because we publish the names of students and the percentage of each.
13. Initial admission does not require delivering documents by hand; there is a partnership with the Saudi Posts to do deliver documents and connect students with the college service.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Technaicl and Vocational Corporation
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Abdullah Alseghair
Title:   Director  
Telephone/ Fax:  
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   amalseg@tvtc.gov.sa  
Address:  
Postal Code:  
City:  
State/Province:  
Country:   Saudi Arabia

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