Dr. De Leon (left) with other evaluators and school officials of Makkah International Technical School.
Upon the endorsement of the Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC), the Saudi Skills Standards invited Dr. Richard C. De Leon to serve as institutional reviewer of the technical colleges of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on April 1-19, 2018.
Along with his European and Australian counterparts, he was tasked to evaluate the leadership and management, teaching and learning, trainee outcomes and trainee support of the identified schools.
Among the institutions he evaluated were the Makkah International Technical College, Jeddah International and Technical College, Riyadh International Aviation College, Riyadh Tourism and Hospitality International Technical College and Al-Quway’iyah International Technical College.
Dr. De Leon, Research Services Division Director, was one of the first two Asians to be selected as evaluator of Saudi technical colleges. “I am happy to be one of the first two Asians to serve as institutional reviewer. It was also a learning experience for me” he said.
In his visit, the skills and capacity of the Filipinos to cope with the high education standards of the Saudi government caught his attention. “Instructors are asked to undergo re-training or to leave if there are problems with their performance. However, I found out that there are still a number of Filipinos employed as instructors at the schools I visited,” De Leon noted.
