Saudi Arabia ranked #1 in the region for technology skills, and secured #2 position in MENA for overall skills of learners

• Proficiency in business skills represented an area of strength among the country’s talent force

The Coursera Global Skills Report 2023 sheds light on Saudi Arabia's economic growth which is being driven by steady foreign investment, a flourishing startup ecosystem, and a digital revolution. The report emphasizes that business-related skills are the strongest in the country and data science is the area that offers the highest potential for investment.

Drawing on data from 124 million learners in more than 100 countries who have used Coursera to develop a new skill during the past year, the Global Skills Report 2023 benchmarks three of the most in-demand skill areas driving employment in the digital economy - business, technology, and data science. The proficiency levels are compared against one another by using percentile rankings; 76% or above is considered ‘cutting-edge’, 51%-75% is ‘competitive’, 26%-50% is ‘emerging’, and 25% or below is ‘lagging’.

Saudi Arabian learners ranked second in the MENA region in overall skill proficiency, while also demonstrating the second highest YoY growth in Professional Certificate attainment, with 97% of  students surveyed in the country agreeing it would help them get a job after graduation.

In terms of cutting-edge business skills (81%), learners in the Kingdom scored high on communication (96%), entrepreneurship (91%), as well as leadership and management (91%). This is in alignment with the government’s concerted efforts to boost the SME and start-up sector, which surpassed $11 billion in value in 2022, bucking global growth trends.

The report also analyzes over-indexing skills, which looks at the specific skill sets that learners  in the Kingdom are enrolling in more than all other learners on the platform. It underlined that learners within the country are more likely to invest more in business skills, such as supply chain systems (1.48x), leadership development (1.7x), and operations management (1.97x), and design skills like graphic designing (1.3x), interactive design (1.47x), and computer graphic techniques (1.39x) in comparison to their counterparts in other markets.

The Kingdom emerged as a competitive leader in technology skills proficiency (68%) with learners’ topping the list in security engineering (100%), operating systems (90%), and computer networking (86%), further showcasing the growing willingness of the country's talent force to embrace the unprecedented opportunities offered by the tech sector, and thus gain a competitive edge in the fast-evolving work realm. 

However, while business and technology proficiency remained areas of strength, proficiency in data science (43%) signified scope for improvement with learners in the country scoring competitively in data management (67%) and mathematics (68%).

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO, Coursera, said: “With a strong innovation landscape and a large young population brimming with potential, there is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is making significant strides in establishing a future-fit work ecosystem, as evidenced by the Global Skills Report where the Kingdom emerged as a strong challenger in business and technology skills within the region and globally. However, data science remains a key area of growth, and strategic investments in this sphere are critical to realizing the country’s vision of establishing a steadfast digital economy driven by an empowered talent force.”

According to the report, Saudi Arabia currently has over 900,000 Coursera learners, with a median age of 34 years and approximately one-third of all students being women. The platform has also seen a significant increase in Professional Certificate Enrollment (69%), with mobile emerging as the preferred learning device among (57%) of learners.

Key findings from MENA

The 2023 Global Skills Report states that the MENA region, with 7.2 million Coursera learners, is strongest in business skills (52%), but leaders could further invest in developing technology (28%) and data science skills (25%).

Learners in the UAE lead (99%) in business skills, with Oman (97%), Bahrain (90%), Saudi Arabia (81%), and Qatar (78%) also achieving cutting-edge scores. Technology represented a gap throughout the region with learners in Saudi Arabia (68%) achieving the highest skill score. Data science marks an area of improvement across the region where 37% of all learners are women and the median age is 30.

Compared to other regions, learners in MENA are more likely to invest in marketing skills like social media (1.44x) and advertising (1.43x), along with leadership skills like people analysis (1.66x), human learning (1.6x), and influencing (1.42x). They are also more likely to invest in AI-related data science skills like deep learning (1.21x), artificial neural networks (1.2x), computer vision (1.17x), and technology skills like computer graphic techniques (1.38x), graphic design (1.31x) and interactive design (1.15x).

To download the full report and explore insights unique to a country or region, visit https://coursera.org/skills-reports/global.

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