السعودية تعزز دور الشباب بمهارات «المستقبل»

On July 15 of this month in 2025, we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Day for Youth Skills, and this year's theme focuses on empowering youth through artificial intelligence and digital skills. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia places great importance on developing youth skills across all sectors, whether in the public or private sector. This is part of several important steps and pathways for the overall national economy, considering the economic aspect and the importance of advancing the labor market, which requires new skills related to the era, digitization, and the application of artificial intelligence technologies in the Saudi market, equipping newcomers with these essential skills; which some believe are more important than university degrees. We may witness qualitative changes in the importance of the skills needed for the labor market, moving away from what we were accustomed to in the past. Initially, the Kingdom, through the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development and various official entities, is working to prioritize the youth's acquisition of skills in several fields within the Saudi labor market; for example, knowledge and utilization of artificial intelligence technologies in all areas, as well as problem-solving skills, leadership skills, cognitive skills, learning, and customer interaction. These determinants were established through a database created by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in collaboration with the World Bank, resulting in the identification of the skills required for Saudi youth entering the private sector.

In celebration of this global occasion that focuses on youth, who are the most dynamic and eager to learn and work, and considering their significant proportion of the world's population, this demographic is notably high in our country. From this perspective, the Ministry of Human Resources has worked to leverage this celebration and launched a national initiative to enhance skills and develop competencies in the Kingdom through various pathways, identifying hundreds of future skills and developing over 200 job pathways. This was done in collaboration with more than 150 global experts from the World Bank and the International Labour Organization. I hope to see greater attention in this important field that will equip Saudi youth with new and real skills that assist and develop them in their future jobs, moving away from paper-based university degrees that may not be the key to employment in the future. The Ministry of Education, Sadaia, and the Ministry of Human Resources provide these programs in the field of education and artificial intelligence, which seems to be at the beginning of its true revolution that will change the nature of the work system in the future. I hope that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development will establish specialized centers in large and medium-sized cities and neighborhoods to develop the concept of youth skill development through specialized lectures and workshops tailored to the rapidly changing requirements of the Saudi labor market.