The role of education in advancing the national narrative of Saudi Arabia

The economic diversification strategy linked to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 underpins a new and ambitious skills agenda, driven by the government’s Human Capability Development Programme and a growing ecosystem of public and private training initiatives. This paper argues that this skills agenda functions as an exercise in soft power: by equipping young Saudis with globally valued competencies in communication, civic engagement, arts, culture, and digital literacy, the Kingdom is cultivating a generation capable of embodying and projecting a modern national identity at home and abroad. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of soft power and human capital theory, and through two illustrative cases of skills development in political engagement and arts and culture, the paper explores how education and training reform is being deployed as a strategic tool of statecraft. While the initiatives reflect a genuine commitment to economic development and global competitiveness, the paper also identifies the tensions inherent in this approach: its reliance on a neoliberal human capital logic that essentialises skills and places the burden of success on individuals, its risk of deepening inequalities in access, and its instrumentalisation of youth as soft power champions rather than as agents of their own futures. In doing so, it calls for a more human-centred approach to skills development, one that broadens opportunity structures and creates space for young Saudis to contribute to, rather than simply serve, the national narrative.