Saudi Vision 2030 is a set of social and economic reforms launched in April 2016 by Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, aimed at diversifying the Saudi economy. Saudi Arabia needs to attract foreign investments, expand its private sector, tackle youth unemployment, and secure continued domestic support for the ruling family.

Youth unemployment is a worrying problem for Saudi rulers. The age group, 15-34, is the largest (36.7%) of the overall population, and 67% of all Saudis are under 34 years of age. 60.7% of unemployed Saudis are aged 20-29. 53.5% of the unemployed hold a bachelor’s degree, and 24.9% of the unemployed Saudis who hold a diploma or higher degree have chosen the humanities as their specialisation.

In the age group 25-54, the rate of male unemployment is 5.9% and female unemployment is 21.9%. The overall Saudi unemployment rate is 11.3%.

Among the sectors covered by Saudi Vision 2030, direct reference specifically to the youth is nowhere to be found. Vision 2030 depicts the “vibrant society” and the “real wealth” of the country; it mentions families, children, the academic and educational system but does not explicitly mention youth.

During a 2019 interview, MbS did, however, express these sentiments: “Saudi youth is now leading change…I would like to pay tribute to the role of young people in the transformation currently taking place in the Kingdom. It is a young Vision with a young spirit”.

Notwithstanding the widespread and vocal international criticism regarding lack of transparency and a tarnished human rights record, Saudi rulers have, on the other hand, consistently supported the development of education, and notably higher education, as an element pivotal to the human, social and economic progress of the country.

“Saudi youth is now leading change…I would like to pay tribute to the role of young people in the transformation currently taking place in the Kingdom. It is a young Vision with a young spirit”.

According to the National Budget Statement for the Fiscal Year 2022, with a total projected expenditure set at SAR955 billion ($254 billion), spending on education sector (SAR185 billion, $49 billion) takes priority among the nine key sectors covered by the budget, followed by the military (SAR171 billion, $45 billion).

What makes the Saudi higher education landscape unique among GCC countries is the extensive and expensive government-funded study abroad scholarship program, of which the first edition predates the establishment of the modern Kingdom. Indeed, it was in 1927 that the first male Saudi citizens were sent to study abroad at foreign universities, supported by government-sponsored scholarships, on the condition that after graduation, they would return home and work in the field assigned to them by the government. The scholarship program grew both quantitatively and qualitatively over subsequent decades and ultimately became accessible to Saudi women as well.

In 2019, before the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic, there were 92,997 Saudi scholarship students overseas, including 13,049 studying at their own expense. The former King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP), under the new name Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ External Scholarship Program, is seen primarily as a means to enhance the performance of the Saudi economy and enable Saudi graduates to specialise and compete at the global level.

The new phase of the study abroad scholarship program, which was announced in October 2020, the “Path of Excellence for Scholarships”, aims to keep working toward the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030, which states not least that the government is committed to closing the gap between the outputs of higher education and the requirements of the job market, and stresses that scholarship opportunities will be steered towards prestigious international universities and be awarded in the fields that serve national priorities.

Being the majority of the population, the younger age group has a strategic role in providing economic and political support to the future king.

The program now includes 70 universities worldwide and 32 specialisations that reflect the government’s goals for national sustainable development. Selected fields of study currently include Sports and Sports Administration, Hospitality Management, Tourism and Tourism Management, Media and Communication Sciences, Maritime Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Environmental Management, as the country seeks to become part of the global tourism market. Employment opportunities for qualified youth in the nascent Saudi leisure tourism and hospitality industry sectors are particularly promising.

To date, unfortunately, there is no official English language document available providing a detailed evaluation of the actual impact this scholarship program might have on the Saudi labour market.

With regards to the tertiary level of education in Saudi Arabia, there are currently 29 public universities, 14 private universities and 22 private colleges, not to mention a number of public colleges that has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. In addition, several national and external scholarship programs are offered by a number of Saudi organisations.

After years of tergiversation, the Saudi establishment has still not made a final decision on the opening of foreign university campuses in the Kingdom. If, in addition to continuing with the various scholarship programs, foreign universities were allowed to operate on Saudi soil, this would create an offering of world-class courses to help build skills in line with the needs of the labour market.

In private and public sectors alike, youth entrepreneurship and creativity are burgeoning; these include ministerial agreements aimed at incubating national talents in various creative fields.

With creativity primarily important among the soft skills needed to be employable in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the question of whether creativity is learned or innate has become a subject of scientific debate. Studies on the genetic basis for creativity confirm the substantial influence of genetics on creative professions. It is to be hoped that societal research might now focus on a long-overdue shift in GCC countries — and elsewhere, for that matter — away from the tribal practice of endogamy and toward a more open attitude since an already rich genetic heritage could benefit further from greater exogamy.

The efforts made to link academic curricula and vocational training programs to the demands of the Saudi labour market clearly indicate that the Saudi leadership is acutely aware of the challenges posed by youth unemployment.

Being the majority of the population, the younger age group has a strategic role in providing economic and political support to the future king.

But while massive investments in the Saudi entertainment sector — inspired and managed mostly by foreign consultancies — help to appease the population, especially the young, basic red lines are still firmly in place and fully enforced.

Accordingly, the great challenge for the educated Saudi youth of today is to find their way confidently beyond the advice of foreign consultants and to express their views, capabilities and ambitions, as well as their aspirations for their society, political system and domestic labour market. And it is up to Saudi rulers to create the conditions for effective empowerment and bottom-up involvement of educated youth in all sectors of political, social and economic life.