JEDDAH: Four out of every five employees on the Diriyah Gate development are Saudis, its CEO revealed on Wednesday.
The Diriyah Gate project has made great strides in its efforts to hire citizens, especially women, said Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of the Diriyah Gate Development Authority.
“The thing that I’m most proud about is that 83 percent of our staff are Saudi, 36 percent of our staff Saudi women, 16 percent of our Saudi women are in management,” he told delegates at a seminar in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The executive also highlighted the youthful profile of the team.
“Sixty-five percent of the Kingdom’s population is under the age of 35. My staff, the average age is 31. If you take me out of probably drops to 24,” Inzerillo said.
Under the Vision 2030 goals, Saudi Arabia aims for female participation in the labor force to be at 30 percent by 2030, a target it has achieved ahead of schedule.
The CEO also attended the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai last week, where he gave details of the $20 billion project.
Diriyah Gate is being built primarily for Saudis who got their education abroad and are returning to the Kingdom, mostly settling in the capital, including professionals, Inzerillo told Bloomberg.
The project is being built on the outskirts of Riyadh, which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to expand from its current population of 5 million to between 15 and 20 million by 2030 and become one of the 10 richest cities in the world.
The first phase of the project is estimated at $20 billion, the DGDA CEO said.
“At the end of this year and the first quarter of 2022, we will complete the construction of some assets in Diriyah,” Inzerillo said. “We will open the new Al-Bujairi District and 19 restaurants in addition to new hotels and gardens. We have also planted 22,000 trees.”
“We invested $1 billion in the infrastructure of these projects,” he said. “We also launched the Wadi Safar development project, where the first hotel and museum will soon open. We will show ready assets in the first quarter of 2022.”
Four out of every five Diriyah Gate staff are Saudis
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Four out of every five Diriyah Gate staff are Saudis
- The Diriyah Gate project has made great strides in its efforts to hire citizens, especially women
Saudi Arabia leads outcome-based education to prepare future-ready generations: Harvard Business Review
- The Riyadh-based school group developed a strategy that links every classroom activity to measurable student competencies, aiming to graduate learners equipped for the digital economy and real-world contexts
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s education system is undergoing a sweeping transformation aligned with Vision 2030, shifting from traditional, input-focused methods to outcome-based education designed to equip students with future-ready skills, Harvard Business Review Arabic reported.
The transformation is being adopted and spearheaded by institutions such as Al-Nobala Private Schools, which introduced the Kingdom’s first national “learning outcomes framework,” aimed at preparing a generation of leaders and innovators for an AI-driven future, the report said.
Al-Nobala has leveraged international expertise to localize advanced learning methodologies.
The Riyadh-based school group developed a strategy that links every classroom activity to measurable student competencies, aiming to graduate learners equipped for the digital economy and real-world contexts. The school’s group approach combines traditional values with 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication, innovation and digital fluency.
According to the report, the shift addresses the growing gap between outdated models built for low-tech, resource-constrained environments and today’s dynamic world, where learners must navigate real-time information, virtual platforms, and smart technologies.
“This is not just about teaching content, it’s about creating impact,” the report noted, citing how Al-Nobala’s model prepares students to thrive in an AI-driven world while aligning with national priorities.
The report noted that Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education has paved the way for this shift by transitioning from a centralized controller to a strategic enabler, allowing schools such as Al-Nobala to tailor their curriculum to meet evolving market and societal needs. This is part of the long-term goal to place the Kingdom among the top 20 global education systems.
Al-Nobala’s work, the report stated, has succeeded in serving the broader national effort to link education outcomes directly to labor market demands, helping to fulfill the Vision 2030 pillar of building a vibrant society with a thriving economy driven by knowledge and innovation.
Last February, Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Benyan, Saudi Arabia’s minister of education, said that the Kingdom was making “an unprecedented investment in education,” with spending aligned to the needs of growth and development. He said that in 2025, education received the second-largest share of the state budget, totaling $53.5 billion.
