Bridging The Gap Between Higher Education And The Labour Market Needs In Saudi Arabia: The Role Of High Education Institutions

This paper presents the results of a foresight study examined the future knowledge, skills, and attitudes required by Saudi Private sector leaders (SPSLs) to achieve the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 and comply with COVID-19 pandemic new work style as well as workforce requirement. This study ultimately, aims to bridge the Gap between Saudi Higher Education Institutions (SHEIs) and the labour market needs by enhancing the role of High Education Institutions. However,Data collection wasgathered through interviews twenty Private Sector leaders plusdesigned a web-based questionnaire that was distributed online to SPSLsof Energy, services, Health Care, telecommunication, education and other. The questions consisted of four sections aiming to identify the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes that SHEIs shouldbe provided to deal with the changeof business environments.The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha and the data were analyzed using descriptive tests (mean and standard deviation).Moreover,Randomized blocks ANOVA method was also used to test the significant differences in participants’ attitudes. The results of the study clearly emphasize on crucial needs for new effective knowledge, skills, and attitudes to fulfil this new era of the rapid pace of Saudi labour market changes. The outcomes of this study may be used bylocal authorities, employers, academics, and researchers to set up future-oriented education curricula and policies to bridge the gap between knowledge, skills, and attitudes demand and supply which arises out of recent labor market changes