The original blog Saudi Work In Progress was a place to contemplate big thoughts on my PhD journey, which ended in 2019. Posts before 2023 are all related to my PhD academic journey.

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Skills, work, employment, pathways…these are considered major areas of development for Saudi Arabia, a country of over 30 million people, where nearly half of the population is under age 15.

Under the newly released National Transformation Plan (NTP) Saudi Arabia’s public and private institutions will strive to meet strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) to achieve the overarching goals of Vision 2030. Many of these indicators are related to the intersection of education and work, striving to prepare our some 15 million young people to drive Saudi’s economy into the next phase – a phase that departs from a dependence on oil and strives for knowledge based diversification.

Through an examination of how young people make choices about their career futures at key transitional phases, my PhD aims to shed light on how identity, culture, and socio-economic status influence choice and aspirations.  With an aim to increase enrolments in technical and vocational schools from 10% to 30% within the next few years, understanding why 94% of high school graduates would prefer an academic four-year qualification over a skills-based one is crucial.

My aim is to qualitatively understand the stories behind these numbers, to do the ground work and collect the rich empirical evidence that helps us interpret the statistics. I look forward to opening up a discussion about key concepts and ideas for those interested in these areas.