Saudi Arabia ranks among the world’s top 10 nations for its workforce’s overall business skills, according to US-based massive open online course provider Coursera’s latest Global Skills Report.
The Global Skills Report draws data from 100 million learners in more than 100 countries who have used Coursera to develop a new skill during the past year.
While the Kingdom has improved its overall business skills proficiency ranking one spot from 11th to the 10th position globally, proficiency in technology and data science can be further improved, the report points out, especially to meet the goals of the digital transformation outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030.
Learners in the Kingdom demonstrated 91 percent business skills proficiency, with strengths in accounting, human resources, and strategy and operations.
The report urges the country’s workforce leaders to find ways to build on this advantage and expand into additional business skills, such as finance, business analytics, and digital marketing.
Most in-demand skill areas
The report benchmarks three of the most in-demand skill areas driving employment in the digital economy — business, technology, and data science, with rankings of 75 percent or above as cutting-edge, 50 percent to 75 percent as competitive, 25 percent to 50 percent as emerging, and 25 percent or below as lagging.
According to the report, Saudi Arabia has 682,000 Coursera learners with a median age of 34 years and about one-third of all being women. More than half (58 percent) pursue their learning on mobile devices.
