Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development is upskilling Saudi employees already working in the private sector through its Skills Accelerator, run with the Human Capability Development Program. Courses are built around what the labour market needs now and is expected to need in future.

The initiative aims to reach more than 300,000 beneficiaries. Its programmes were designed on the basis of labour-market surveys and studies with input from industry experts, and skills assessments help workers identify their training needs and pick the right development path.

So far it has run more than 590 training programmes in over 10 priority sectors. The best known is the AI skills competitiveness programme, which has passed 44,000 registered trainees. Participants gave the courses a 95.6% satisfaction rate and an average score of 4.73 out of 5, and knowledge-gain tests showed an 11.6% improvement.

More than 35 private-sector companies have signed up as partners. The ministry has also upgraded the National Skills Platform and activated a skills record that documents qualifications, certificates and work experience, linked with the Ministry of Education, the General Organization for Social Insurance and the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation.

Next, the ministry plans to finish skills surveys for priority sectors, measure training outcomes more widely and deepen digital links with public and private bodies. The accelerator sits alongside other ministry initiatives such as the national training campaign Waad, sector skills councils and national occupational standards.