News & Events

IT Blanchardstown participated in the recent Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Saudi Arabia led by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe TD during which the Minister met with the Governor of Saudi Arabia's Technical Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), Dr Ali Nasser Al Ghafis, in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. ITB signed an agreement with TVTC to bring Saudi students to study at the Institute.
Congratulating IT Blanchardstown Minister O'Keeffe said: "This agreement will draw hundreds more Saudi students to Ireland under the well-funded scholarship programme and will build on our strong relationship with Saudi Arabia which considers Ireland among a small number of strategic partners in education".

"Significantly, too, Saudi students could become new ambassadors for Ireland and choose the country for key investments originating in the Middle-East North-Africa region which is our fastest-growing emerging market".
The chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, Frank Ryan, said: "This announcement testifies to the Saudi Government's satisfaction with the standard and quality of the education delivered by Irish institutes of technology. The agreements will also provide an important international boost to ITB and the other institutes of technology involved today".

"International education is a sector that offers huge potential for growing Irish services exports and Saudi Arabia is a key market that we have targetted in recent years. This further strengthens our case as we continue to market Irish higher education abroad, not just in the Middle East but in the US, China and other markets with growth potential".
Over the next eight years, the TVTC wants to quadruple the number of trainers to 40,000 and raise the number of students in technical or vocational education to 500,000, including 100,000 women.
About 800 Saudis are studying in Ireland and it is estimated they are worth some €20 million to the economy annually.