Hours per year
345 Mn
annual hours on learning content, recorded by TikTok across all adult users in the Kingdom.
Chapter 02
Enabling everyday learning in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in skills. TikTok can complement that system early in the journey, helping people discover what to learn and making practical skills easier to explore.
345 Mn hours
spent on learning content by adult TikTok users in Saudi Arabia over the past year.
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in skills. TikTok can complement that system early in the journey, helping people discover what to learn and making practical skills easier to explore.
56%
of TikTok users encountered upskilling content on the platform in the past year
79%
of those who encountered upskilling content on TikTok say it felt relatable and doable
46%
reported joining a course, workshop or programme after seeing content on skills
81%
said learning from the platform helped their work, studies or career
Source: Redseer analysis.
National context
Capability is at the centre of the next phase of Vision 2030
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 and comes early in the journey: helping people discover what to learn and making practical skills easier to explore.
Exhibit 1 · The levers determining the next phase of growth depend on capability building
The engines of the next phase of Vision 2030 growth
01
Competitive industries
Winning demand at home and abroad
02
Productive SMEs
Growing employment and output
03
Private & global capital
Attracted by capability and returns
Foundation
Workforce capability
Skills, confidence and pathways, built one person at a time.
Vision 2030 Annual Report 2025; Redseer analysis.
Learning appetite
Intent to upskill is already high
75%
of adults tried to build a skill outside formal school or university in the past 12 months.
There is a strong appetite to learn in the Kingdom. A majority, 55%, say learning works best through a mix of formal education, ongoing self-learning, digital resources and practical experience. The route people describe runs through both institutions and everyday self-learning.
The gap between intent and taking the first step is often one of access and orientation. More courses alone do not address gaps in discovery and navigation: a learner who cannot see the route, or picture the first step, is unlikely to take it. Users aged 16 to 23 are the most likely of any age group to say they do not know where to learn.
Exhibit 2 · Time and cost are the top barriers to upskilling
Barriers to building a skill outside formal education, by share of respondents.
Limited time
48%
Cost of learning
42%
Motivation or confidence
31%
Quality institutes too far away
27%
Not knowing where to learn
25%
Language
21%
Not knowing what to learn
19%
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Multi-select, share of respondents, N = 500.
Discovery and relatability
TikTok makes skills easier to discover and explore
79%
of users who encounter upskilling content on TikTok say it often or very often feels relatable and doable.
When asked why they use TikTok, users in the Kingdom rank learning and upskilling second, with 55% naming it as a reason, behind only entertainment.
Many users arrive with a specific need in mind: Search is the most-used way to find upskilling content on TikTok, alongside Explore and the For You feed. When asked what makes skills content feel achievable, respondents point to relatable role models, relevance to their own goals and clear practical explanations, 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 people who see upskilling content on TikTok, 20 percentage points ahead of the next category, while the overall content mix remains broad.
69%
see tech and AI content, the leading category
49%
see creative and content skills, the next largest
7 of 8
categories reach more than a third of those seeing upskilling content
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Multi-select, share of those seeing upskilling content on TikTok, N = 241.
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.
72%
48%
TikTok
Next platform
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Multi-select, share of respondents finding upskilling content via digital media, N = 335.
Exhibit 4 · Creators make skills feel relatable and doable
Share of what makes upskilling content on TikTok feel relatable and doable.
Relatable role models
66%
Relevant to my needs
64%
Clear, practical explanations
60%
Always available on demand
57%
Short, bite-sized format
54%
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Multi-select, share of those finding the content relatable and doable, N = 234.
From discovery to action
TikTok supports the move from skills discovery to action
46%
reported joining a course, workshop or programme after seeing skills content.
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.
Explored the skill further
63%
Saved content to return to
61%
Practised independently
59%
Joined structured learning
46%
Used a tool or resource
33%
Took no action
2%
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Multi-select, share of upskilling-content users, N = 241.
Exhibit 6 · Most users say upskilling content has helped them at work or in their studies
Areas where upskilling-content users say learning from TikTok has helped, and their expected use over the next six months.
~3 in 4
point to performance at work: working faster or solving problems better
~6 in 10
point to practical and vocational skills
71%
expect to use the platform more for learning over the next six months
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026. Areas helped: base N = 196 users who said learning helped. Expected use: base N = 241 upskilling-content users.
Scale of learning
Everyday learning at scale, reaching priority groups
Adult TikTok users in the Kingdom spend 345 Mn hours a year on learning content. Additionally, we estimate 13.3 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.
Exhibit 7 · Learning on TikTok has reached significant scale
Annual hours of learning content and the number of adult upskillers on TikTok13.3 Mn
adult users who encountered upskilling content over the year — a Redseer estimate built from survey incidence and the adult user base.
Estimation approach
1. Hours. The platform records time spent on content it classifies as learning. Learning playtime recorded from 24 June 2025 to 24 June 2026 (363.7 Mn hours) is adjusted to an adult basis by removing 18.9 Mn hours 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 = 434) is applied to Redseer’s estimate of the adult TikTok user base in the Kingdom, giving 13.3 Mn upskillers.
Because the two figures describe different populations, they are not divided to produce an average per upskiller. Neither is a measure of training delivered, skills mastered or extra learning caused by the platform. Full assumptions and definitions appear in the methodology note.
Inclusive reach
Reaching the groups central to Vision 2030’s next phase
The groups central to the next phase of Vision 2030 engage with informal learning in distinctive ways. This makes the step from content discovery into recognised courses particularly important to design carefully.
57%
Women
Women found upskilling content on TikTok against 42% of men, similarly 81% tried to build a skill against 72% among men, and 34% practised a discovered skill against 24% among men. Among women who learn on the platform, 84% report help in their job, studies or career.
Opportunity
Flexible discovery paired with pathways into recognised courses.
16–23
Younger users
Two in five say they do not know where to learn, the highest share of any age group. They encounter skills content at broadly similar rates to older groups but are less likely to take the next step into structured learning.
Opportunity
Direct routes from content into TVTC, Doroob, internships and INJAZ pathways.
80%
Saudi nationals
Saudi respondents tried to build a skill outside formal education against 66% among expatriate residents, and 75% of Saudi digital-media discoverers named TikTok against 65%. The pattern holds across every measure taken.
Opportunity
Arabic-first content and Saudi practitioners teaching Saudi contexts.
Redseer Upskilling Survey, February 2026.
Next steps
Policy implications: from everyday discovery to recognised pathways
The long-term value of everyday discovery depends on how carefully it connects to the institutions that teach, certify, employ and finance. The TikTok and INJAZ Al-Arab entrepreneurship training programme is one such structured pathway that has seen success.
Programme evidence · INJAZ Al-Arab x TikTok in Saudi Arabia · Year 2, 2025-26
TikTok and INJAZ Al-Arab run entrepreneurship training in Saudi schools and universities
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.
517
university students, Company Programme, Year 2
2,551
school students, It’s My Business, Year 2
34
student ventures formed, with 89 volunteer mentors
53% / 56%
women in the Company Programme and It’s My Business
Source: INJAZ Al-Arab x TikTok in Saudi Arabia, FY 2025-26 programme report. Cumulative across Years 1 and 2: 1,077 university students recruited and 5,548 school students engaged.
TikTok in global skills infrastructure
TikTok also contributes a platform module to the GSMA Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit, the train-the-trainer curriculum used by digital-inclusion programmes worldwide: an example of the platform integrating into established skills infrastructure rather than operating beside it.
Five ways to connect everyday learning to recognised outcomes
Route discovery into recognised provision
Create clear links from relevant skills content to TVTC programmes, Doroob modules, university short courses and accredited private providers.
Make navigation easier for younger learners
People aged 16 to 23 are the most likely to say they do not know where to learn. Creator-led guidance can help explain available pathways and first steps.
Make learning count
Connect learning pathways to certificates, micro-credentials or other outcomes that carry value with employers.
Strengthen Arabic-language content in priority skills
Saudi content is already widely encountered. The next opportunity is to strengthen credible Arabic-language content in fields where demand for skills is growing.
Maintain quality as learning scales
Apply mechanisms that help users identify credible educational content, building on models such as the STEM Feed.
TikTok is where learning starts for millions of Saudis.
Saudi Arabia’s education and training institutions provide the depth, quality and recognised outcomes required to build capability. TikTok can complement them earlier in the journey, helping a skill become visible, relatable and worth pursuing. The opportunity is to make that passage deliberate, measurable and useful: from everyday discovery into courses, tools, employers and entrepreneurship support.
Methodology
Read the method
How these figures were built
Every figure in this chapter is documented in the series methodology, covering the survey, bases, model and exclusions.
About the series
The TikTok Effect is Redseer’s series on TikTok’s contribution across Saudi Arabia, spanning economy, upskilling, retail, and sports and tourism. This edition examines everyday learning and skills discovery, and how it connects to the Kingdom’s education and training system.