Three Saudi Ministries sponsor a strategy to develop citizens’ cultural capabilities

The Saudi Ministries of Culture and Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched a strategy recently for developing cultural capabilities, in partnership with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, the Education and Training Evaluation Authority, and the National Center for E-Learning.

Strategy Objectives

The strategy aims to link education outputs with the needs of the labor market in the cultural sector. It will work to include culture and the arts at all stages of education and technical and vocational training. It will also work to develop the educational environment, develop the cultural sector, and elevate it to broader areas in light of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. This vision gives culture significant attention as an element of the President in improving the quality of life of society, according to the statement of the Ministry of Culture.

The Saudi Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, asserted that the national strategy is a natural outgrowth of the keen care that the education and culture sectors receive from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz and HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as development projects related to these two vital sectors occupy an advanced position in the programs. The main government is related to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

“Creative Talents”

The Saudi Minister of Culture thanked the education and training system, led by the Ministry of Education. The system contributed effectively to enriching the strategy and assisting it as a major partner in this ambitious educational development project.

Saudi Minister of Education Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Bunyan explained that his ministry seeks to “invest in people as the main element in building societies and developing nations, to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 programs.”

The Saudi Minister of Education said: “The ministry is participating in implementing the strategy for developing cultural capabilities within an integrated project between various parties, to support and refine the talents of male and female students, qualify them in creative fields, and develop their capabilities to compete globally.”

Developing cultural capabilities

Al-Bunyan affirmed the readiness of the Saudi education system to support the strategy for developing cultural capabilities and to provide all requirements to achieve the targeted results, the most critical of which is to provide the opportunity for creative talents to discover their capabilities from an early age and to develop and develop them, in a way that contributes to enhancing the competitiveness of the educational and cultural sectors regionally and internationally.

The strategy seeks to achieve its first goals by 2026, including that more than half of general education schools provide cultural extra-curricular activities,

Access to 120 training institutions in the fields of culture and the arts, and support for amateurs. This will ensure that more than 14% of Saudis have hobbies related to culture and the arts.

The strategy identified 6 goals that it will work to achieve, which are to ensure that artistic and cultural talents and hobbies are explored and appreciated, to provide an opportunity to develop hobbies and non-institutional education, to provide general education students with a high-quality foundational education in culture and the arts, and to provide higher education and technical and vocational training students with educational and training programs in Arts and culture to meet the needs of the labor market, enable sustainable professional development for arts and culture practitioners and entrepreneurs, increase public awareness of the development of cultural capabilities and create a positive image of artistic and cultural professions and talents.