SAUDI ARABIA – Eversheds advises UK consortium on Saudi women’s education deal

LAW firm Eversheds has advised a consortium of three UK further education colleges on establishing a women’s college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 

North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT) has lead a consortium and to secure a £75M contract to run a women-only vocational training institute in Saudi Arabia. The NESCOT consortium consists of three high quality large further education colleges and working in partnership with NESCOT are Highbury College Portsmouth and Burton and South Derbyshire College (BSDC). 

The Jeddah women’s college is one of 11 tendered for by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as part of a SR4 billion contract with leading colleges in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain to provide technical training for Saudis in line with market needs. The project comes as the first wave of a concerted effort to raise skills training in Saudi Arabia, particularly for women. The consortium is the only one of its kind as the first consortium of UK FE colleges to establish a college outside the UK. The NESCOT consortium was chosen from over 500 global organisations (from the UK, America, Australia and New Zealand) who expressed an interest in running one of this first tranche of 10 vocational colleges in Saudi Arabia. 

Eversheds advised the NESCOT consortium on the bidding process, the setting up of a joint venture company in Saudi Arabia, the contract with the Kingdom to set up and operate the college and the financing arrangements. The Eversheds team consisted of Faisal Tabbaa and senior associate Geoff Allen in Saudi Arabia  and partner Glynne Stanfield and senior associate Nathalie Jacoby-Danesh in the UK. 

Faisal Tabbaa, partner in the Eversheds Riyadh office, said, “The Saudi government is committed to driving skills training across the Kingdom. The NESCOT consortium is integral as this project will provide a template for future partnerships to improving the skill base of the Saudi workforce. International education is a strong driver for the education sector and the chance to use our expertise on this ground breaking project has been really pleasing.”