What Saudi employers have to disclose about their training

As published by HRSD/Qiwa — confirm on Qiwa — every private-sector establishment whose average number of workers over the year is 50 or more. For smaller establishments, disclosure is described as optional. It is filed through the training management service on Qiwa. Published material says Qiwa sends reminders and that the ministry keeps each establishment’s training data confidential — confirm both on Qiwa.

As published by HRSD/Qiwa — confirm on Qiwa — the data is to be recorded within one month of the end of the calendar year, which published material defines as 31 December. Check the dates Qiwa shows for the current year before you plan around them.

As published — confirm on Qiwa — the form asks for figures such as:

1. Number of trainees: People who completed training, by group: workers, co-op trainees placed by educational institutions, and graduates and jobseekers, with Saudi and non-Saudi trainees reported separately.
2. Average training hours: Average hours of training per worker.
3. Total cost: The total cost of the training activity carried out during the year.
4. Training spend as a share of wages: That year’s training spend as a proportion of the wages paid to workers.
5. Types and activities: The kinds of training delivered, broken down by the same trainee groups.

For the year ahead, a plan: the expected number of trainees by group, the total training budget, that budget as a share of wages, and the planned types of training.

Read as a list of what your records must contain, this asks for more than it seems to. Trainee counts and average hours need attendance recorded per person. Total cost needs cost attached to each activity. The type of every activity is the hardest part to reconstruct at filing time from memory and invoices.

As published — confirm on Qiwa — each type of training converts into units. Two hours of a course, a workshop, a lecture or seminar, or a professional mentoring program is one unit. E-learning takes four hours per unit. On-the-job training and job rotation count two units for every five working days, and on-the-job training counts only when it is tied to clear objectives for the establishment. For Saudi workers whose studies the employer pays for, each hour of study counts as two units. The total disclosed for each trainee must reach at least eight units a year.

As published by HRSD/Qiwa — confirm on Qiwa — establishments that do not disclose within the deadline may be fined by size: SAR 5,000 for 50 to 499 employees, SAR 10,000 for 500 to 2,999, and SAR 15,000 for more than 3,000. One fine applies per year. If the violation repeats the following year, the fine doubles, up to SAR 10,000, SAR 20,000, and SAR 30,000 respectively.

In our experience the practical risk is seldom a refusal to report. It is filing late, or filing a number nobody can back up because the underlying data was never kept in one place.

Published material states the aim: better labor-market data and national indicators for training, so the ministry can set suitable regulations and incentives. That is a statement of purpose, not a forecast of what will be required next.

Each of these figures is easy if training is recorded as it happens and hard if it is assembled afterwards. Three things make the difference:

• External training counts: Workshops, conferences, and courses bought from outside providers are training activity, and published material counts their fees in the total cost. A record covering only in-house material will understate the figures you file.
• Hours are counted per person: The average is total person-hours divided by the number of workers. The real risk is counting session-hours instead of hours times attendees. Example: a six-hour workshop for ten people is 60 person-hours, and a record that logs the session without its attendees will report six.
• Types are recorded when training is created: Recording each activity’s type when it is scheduled turns the type breakdown, and the eight-unit calculation, into a matter of adding up.