RIYADH: Educational technology and public-private partnerships are key scaling tools in Saudi Arabia’s human capital transformation, helping close the gap between academic output and labor-market needs, experts told Arab News.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 Human Capability Development Program forms the core of this goal, as the initiative aims to make the Kingdom’s citizens globally competitive across the full life cycle: early childhood, general education, higher education, technical and vocational training, and lifelong learning.
Alessandro Lanteri, teaching professor and executive director at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Dubai, told Arab News that PPPs in the Kingdom are increasingly used beyond physical infrastructure financing into core curriculum design and delivery.
He said: “This integration ensures that educational outputs are tied to employers’ demand.”
Partnerships move from financing to co-producing talent
Amitabh Jhingan, EY-Parthenon strategy partner for MENA and EY Global Education Sector Leader, echoed similar views and said that PPPs are playing an important role in helping the government expand capacity, bring in specialized capabilities, enhance internationalization and create stronger linkages between industry and academia.
“Saudi Arabia is making significant strides in strengthening its education and skills development ecosystem. Recent efforts to establish university hospitals in collaboration with specialized healthcare providers are expanding opportunities for clinical training, research, and health care education for students,” said Jhingan.
He further said that collaborations with leading international academic institutions are bringing global best practices and world-class educational models to the Kingdom at scale.
Continued expansion of industry-aligned vocational and technical training programs is helping bridge the gap between education outcomes and workforce needs, ensuring graduates are better equipped with skills demanded by a rapidly evolving economy.
Yigit Saf, principal in the Public Sector Practice at Arthur D. Little, Middle East, said that public-private partnerships are increasingly treated as a way to co-produce talent rather than merely finance education.
According to Saf, the strongest PPP models bring government, training institutions and employers together so that companies help design curricula, provide equipment and instructors, offer workplace experience and, ideally, create a pathway into employment.
He said: “We are also seeing greater private and international participation in higher education.
“The Ministry of Education has explicitly opened opportunities for foreign university branches, while the Human Capability Development Program reported approvals for new university branches in the Kingdom.”
The vitality of ed tech
Lanteri said that ed tech is one of the key scaling mechanisms to bridge the gap between academic output and labor-market realities.
“Unlike conventional delivery models, educational technology can offer faster iteration cycles, allowing training content and pathways to be updated more quickly as labor-market needs change,” said Lanteri.
Jhingan added that ed tech will also help the Kingdom develop world-class content, access best-in-class international material and deliver it to learners quickly, accelerating the broader transformation of education and human capital.
Aanchal Kotibhaskar, founder of school admissions guidance firm XellED, opined that technology is making Saudi Arabia’s human capital formation more powerful and effective.
“Personalized learning, adaptive assessment and AI allow educators to understand aptitude and learning patterns with far greater precision,” she said, adding: “Yet their greatest value, in my view, is not replacing human judgment, but giving educators better insight into where an individual might thrive.”
Local ed tech startups differentiating themselves from global platforms
According to Arthur D. Little’s Saf, global ed tech firms enjoy advantages in content and scale, and language is becoming a less pronounced barrier.
Saf said that the strongest path is co-development that combines international academic expertise with Saudi economic priorities and direct employer involvement.
“In this context, local companies are more likely to thrive by being more relevant, integrated and available. Obviously it starts with Arabic. But then, successful local platforms can design around the cultural norms, national curriculum, local assessment systems, classroom practices, teacher workflows and the expectations of students and parents. They can also integrate more effectively with Saudi regulatory requirements and institutional systems,” said Saf.
He added: “Several platforms, including Noon Education, SQORI, ALW among others promote themselves as Arabic-first AI providers and anchor their offering in alignment with the Saudi curriculum.”
Skills gaps remain acute in key sectors
According to Jhnigan, sectors including healthcare, engineering and technology continue to see the greatest skills gaps.
“New sectors such as culture, tourism, hospitality and arts will also require a large number of trained professionals over the next 10-12 years,” said Jhingan.
The most important test for the next stage of the human capital agenda, Saf argued, is whether training produces durable employment and progression rather than temporary or subsidized roles.
“HRDF already supports private-sector recruitment and training, including salary support mechanisms that can extend for up to two years, while programs such as Tamheer provide structured on-the-job experience,” said Saf.
He added: “Going forward, the model should become even more outcome-based.
“Training providers should increasingly be measured on employment at six, 12 and 24 months, salary progression, occupation-to-training match and retention after subsidies expire.
“Employers should also have skin in the game through co-funding, apprenticeships or hiring commitments.”
Kotibhaskar noted that Saudi Arabia’s human capital transformation will succeed only if it is measured by how far individuals can progress — not merely by how many Saudis enter the workforce.
According to her, Saudization may ultimately be reflected in employment, but its foundations are built much earlier — through education, exposure and the ability to recognize and develop potential.
“The meaningful outcome is progression. When education enables young Saudis not simply to enter the workforce, but to keep developing, specialize, innovate and lead, human capital investment becomes something much bigger,” said Kotibhaskar.
She added: “Technology may help us understand potential earlier; education develops it; and the strength of the wider ecosystem determines how far that potential can ultimately travel.”
