JEDDAH: King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) launched the first Saudi International ELT (English Language Teaching) Conference and Expo 2020 at Jeddah’s Park Hyatt Hotel on Tuesday. Opening the three-day conference, which is titled the Educational Leadership Summit Program, dean of the English Language Institute at KAU, Dr. Abdullah Al-Bargi, said the goal of the summit is to bring leaders from different sectors that are closely related to education “such as technology, investment and accreditation bodies to discuss ways in which we can help improve English language education in Saudi Arabia and globally.” He said that the advances in the Kingdom’s education sector are looking very promising. “When the students finish our program for example, we have to make sure they meet international standards,” he told Arab News. “When we promise the community that our students finish for example at 5.5 in IELTS, we make sure they are at 5.5 in IELTS by using an external validation process such as Exist Tests or tests that are highly correlated to IELTS or TOEFL,” Al-Bargi added. Microsoft Arabia’s education sector director Khalil Nadim said Microsoft Arabia has been contributing to the education sector in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years, and Microsoft in general has been focusing on education for more than 30 years. “Microsoft in Saudi has been driving teacher training, professional development on leading learning in the classroom and embedding 21st century skills in the classroom,” he said. INTO University Partnerships’ cofounder and deputy CEO John Sykes applauded the advances in the education sector following Saudi Vision 2030. “It’s a reengineering of the sector, it’s hopefully bringing into it partners who can help and support but in a very different way.” He said that in the past every English language student has gone out of the country to learn the language. “They are looking at how you can bring that into the region and bring the skills with it to support and maintain the region. Now you look at the growth in jobs coming up in the next 10 years to 2030 and where they’re going to be.”