Challenges Facing TVET in Saudi Arabia and Road Map to Reform

Abstract

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training is an important component of several manpower development programs in Saudi Arabia but faces many obstacles which prevent it from fully realizing the government’s aims. When a country wishes to reform TVET radically, it is helpful to draws on comparative research on the implementation of new models in other countries and to be informed of any debates regarding these. Detailed review of the literature has been carried out by the author to ascertain the role that TVET plays in Saudi Arabia. The author also identified the most significant challenges which TVET encounters along with critical success factors (CSFs) relating to improving TVET in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the author has examined international TVET practices and thus take advantage of the experiences of other countries, and then has suggested solutions to tackle challenges and to remove them. This study lists various challenge which impact on TVET in Saudi Arabia and ways to overcome them, such as mismatch between the skills of TVET graduates and the labor market, a shortage of good quality training and experience, programs which are not designed to meet the country’s needs, enrollment numbers too low, and a general perception of vocational training as being undignified and not prestigious, all issues which date back to the early days of industrial-vocational education in Saudi Arabia.