Enabling everyday learning in Saudi Arabia

spent on learning content by adult TikTok users in Saudi Arabia each year.

encountered upskilling content on TikTok in the past year

said that content often or very often felt relatable and doable

reported joining a course, workshop or programme after seeing content on skills

said learning from the platform helped their work, studies or career

Vision 2030’s first decade delivered where the state could act directly, through public investment and national mandates. The next phase of development depends on three levers: industries becoming more competitive and able to win on the global front, productive SMEs and sustained capital. Each of these depends on people with the right skills, which makes building capability the task of the next decade.

The Kingdom’s formal education, vocational training, employment and entrepreneurship programmes remain the backbone of this capability system. HRSD leads that agenda nationally, HRDF funds training and placement into work, and TVTC runs the technical and vocational institutions.

However, a person must come across a skill first, see someone like them doing it, and find a way to start that fits around work, study and family.

TikTok is where much of that now happens. Its role is complementary: connecting people into structured learning and certification.

Exhibit 1 · The levers determining the next phase of growth, depend on capability building

The engines of the next phase of Vision 2030

Foundation

Learning appetite

Intent to upskill is already high

There is a strong appetite to learn in the Kingdom. On learning pathways, a majority, 55%, say learning works best as a mix of formal education and ongoing self-learning through digital resources and practical experience. The route people describe runs through both institutions and everyday self-learning.

The gap between intent and a first lesson is access and orientation. More courses alone do not fix a discovery and navigation gap: a learner who cannot see the route, or picture the first step, is unlikely to take it. Among the youngest cohort, aged 16 to 23, not knowing where to learn is the single largest barrier of all, ahead of time and cost.

Exhibit 2 · Time and cost are the top barriers to upskilling

Multi-select, N = 500

of users who encounter upskilling content on TikTok say it often or very often feels relatable and doable.

A feed can surface a skill before someone knows what to search for. When asked what makes skills content feel achievable, respondents point first to the person on screen: relatable role models, relevance to their own goals and clear practical explanation sit together at the top, ahead of the convenience of the format.

The content mix leans toward capabilities receiving strong policy and employer attention. Tech and AI reach 69% of the people who see upskilling material on TikTok, 20 points clear of the next category, while the mix stays wide enough that a learner is not funnelled into a single field.

see tech and AI content, the leading category

see creative and content skills, the next largest

categories reach more than a third of those seeing upskilling content

Exhibit 3 · TikTok leads discovery of upskilling content in digital media

Share of people who encountered upskilling content on digital media in the past 12 months, by platform. N = 335.

Exhibit 4 · The creator makes skills feel relatable and doable

Share of those finding the content relatable and doable. Multi-select, N = 234.

From discovery to action

TikTok supporting movement into structured learning

Respondents describe concrete steps after that first encounter: exploring further, saving content, practising independently, using tools and entering structured learning.

The structured-learning step is the one that matters most for policy, because it is where everyday discovery meets the system that teaches, certifies and recognises. Users also report the platform helping with the barriers named under Learning appetite: among those who cited limited time, 72% say the platform helped them address it, with cost at 62% and motivation and confidence at 61%.

Exhibit 5 · Most take a next step after encountering upskilling content

Actions taken after encountering upskilling content on TikTok — share of those who encountered it. Multi-select, N = 241.

Where upskilling-content users say learning from TikTok helped, and how much they expect to use it over the next six months. Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Base N = 241 upskilling-content users.

Adult TikTok users in the Kingdom spend 345 Mn hours a year on learning content. Additionally, we estimate 13.6 Mn TikTok platform users to be upskillers: people who encountered upskilling content over the year.

At this scale, everyday learning becomes a meaningful complement to formal training: a way for working people to keep pace with fast-moving fields such as technology and AI without stepping away from their jobs. For an economy where productivity growth increasingly depends on the existing workforce continually adding skills, that informal layer is a national asset in its own right.

1. Hours. The platform records time spent on content it classifies as learning. The recorded series (302.93 Mn hours over 304 of 365 days) is scaled to a full year and adjusted to an adult basis by removing time attributable to users aged under 16, giving 345 Mn hours. Hours cover all adult users, not only upskillers.

2. Upskillers. The survey-measured share of adult TikTok users encountering upskilling content (Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026, N = 500) is applied to Redseer’s estimate of the adult TikTok user base in the Kingdom, giving 13.6 Mn upskillers.

Inclusive reach

TikTok reaching the groups central to Vision 2030’s next phase

Programme evidence · INJAZ Al-Arab x TikTok in Saudi Arabia · Year 2, 2025-26

INJAZ Al-Arab delivers employability and entrepreneurship education across the Arab world. Its Saudi programme with TikTok ran from October 2024 to July 2026, pairing in-person and virtual training with career sessions led by TikTok employees and a national Company of the Year award that sends the winning team to INJAZ Al-Arab’s regional final across 13 countries.

In its second year, the partnership took 517 university students through the Company Programme and 2,551 school students through It’s My Business: supervised practice in forming ventures, pitching them and working with volunteer mentors drawn from industry. Venture ideas cluster in AI and smart technology, clean energy, digital platforms, financial technology, and health and safety.