Education & Training

Saudi Arabia is a youthful country, a third of its population being under the age of 15, and in recent years the country’s leaders have invested billions of dollars to educate these young people to lead the planned transformation of the country from an oil-rich state to a diversified, knowledge-based economy. School enrolment numbers and university graduation statistics have improved, though the ultimate goal of realigning the Saudi workforce has proved more elusive. The focus of many of the recent efforts in the education and training sector are on providing young people with the soft skills and vocational qualifications that are required by the private sector job market.

This chapter contains interviews with Ahmed Aleissa, Minister of Education; Ahmed Alfahaid, Governor, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation; and Khaleel Alibrahim, Rector, University of Hail.