Kuwait’s competitiveness will depend on how effectively education systems, government ambition and private sector demand come together to create clear and credible pathways from learning to employment
With a new leadership in place, Kuwait has already taken steps toward preparing its youth for the future. The 2025-2030 Youth Strategic Plan signals a clear commitment to qualifying young leaders, enhancing career guidance and supporting entrepreneurship through initiatives such as the Kuwait Tech Hub for Entrepreneurship.1
These efforts sit firmly within Kuwait Vision 2035, which sets out Kuwait’s ambition to build a diversified, knowledge-driven economy.2 While the policy intent is clear, the challenge now is execution – specifically, whether education and early-career pathways are keeping pace with how the economy itself is changing.
AI and workforce readiness
Across Kuwait, digital technologies and artificial intelligence are increasingly being adopted across government, energy, financial services and other major sectors.
This momentum is being reinforced by national policy. The Kuwait National AI Strategy (2025-2028) sets out a clear roadmap for integrating AI across the country’s economic and social systems. The strategy focuses on using AI to drive economic growth, empower the workforce and accelerate digital transformation.
This policy direction is translating into rapid workforce adoption, consistent with wider regional trends where employees have increasingly integrated AI into their day-to-day work and report tangible productivity benefits. Findings from PwC’s Middle East Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025 show that 75% of respondents in the region have used AI in their jobs over the past 12 months, compared with 69% globally. In addition, 82% of regional respondents report that AI has improved their productivity, exceeding the global figure of 77%.3
This emphasis on skills and workforce readiness is actively encouraging younger generations to engage with AI-enabled tools and build the future-ready capabilities needed to sustain productivity gains and long-term economic value.
Skills alignment under pressure
The challenge now lies in alignment. Education and training pathways do not yet consistently reflect the applied digital, analytical and problem-solving skills that employers increasingly require. We see the consequences of this gap on both sides of the market. Many young Kuwaitis face difficulties transitioning from education into a labour market where demand for such capabilities is growing, while employers continue to report challenges in accessing talent with the right balance of technical knowledge and practical experience.
This gap is not driven by a lack of commitment or aspiration. Kuwait continues to invest heavily in education, allocating 11.5% of total government expenditure to the sector in 2023.4 Nor is it a question of ambition among young people themselves. Alongside continued interest in public sector employment, there is growing demand for private-sector careers in entrepreneurship, technology-enabled businesses and innovation-led enterprises, supported by incubators and youth business programmes.5
What this points to is a need for closer alignment. This means embedding digital literacy, AI fluency and problem-solving skills across all levels of learning – not as electives, but as core competencies. It also means combining classroom learning with hands-on experience through apprenticeships, industry-led training programmes and applied innovation environments.
For Kuwait, global collaboration can accelerate this shift. Partnerships with leading technology firms and universities can bring international expertise into Kuwait’s education ecosystem, while well-structured public-private partnerships can help ensure vocational and professional pathways reflect real market demand. Inclusivity must remain central, with deliberate efforts to widen participation and address gender gaps so opportunities in emerging sectors are accessible to all.
Why this matters economically
Governments across the region are encouraging wider use of AI to improve productivity and service delivery, particularly among younger workers entering the labour market. PwC research shows that widespread, responsible AI adoption could add up to 8.3% to Middle East GDP over the next decade.6
For Kuwait, realising any share of that opportunity depends on capability, not technology alone. Productivity gains only materialise when people have the skills to apply digital and AI tools effectively in real-world settings. Without the right skills in place, adoption remains uneven and the economic returns fall short of potential.
Scaling skills through collaboration
Kuwait has been clear about its ambition to strengthen youth capability and employability. Vision 2035, alongside programmes led by the Ministry of Youth and related institutions, places strong emphasis on leadership development, career readiness and entrepreneurship. Initiatives delivered with organisations such as Injaz Kuwait have helped expose young people to business skills, financial literacy and early workplace experience. Together, these efforts demonstrate intent and provide momentum. The priority now is ensuring that ambition consistently translates into workforce outcomes.
Achieving that requires deeper collaboration between government, education providers and the private sector. Employers are uniquely positioned to help bridge the gap between learning and work by shaping curricula, offering applied learning opportunities and providing early exposure to professional environments. When businesses engage directly in skills development, capability building becomes aligned with real labour market demand rather than theoretical requirements.
PwC Middle East’s ElevateMe programme illustrates how this collaboration can work in practice, with Kuwait an active participant. ElevateMe is our flagship mentoring programme designed to support university students as they transition from academia into the professional environment. Through structured mentoring relationships, PwC professionals share practical insight into workplace expectations, career pathways and the application of technical skills.
In Kuwait, this has been reinforced through PwC practitioners delivering university workshops on accounting and related technical topics, helping students connect academic learning with real-world practice. There are also ongoing plans to work with universities and engage a wider group of stakeholders to expand reach and deepen impact on youth employability.
Making collaboration stick
To scale impact, efforts need to move beyond individual initiatives and become embedded across the education and employment system. This means sustained partnerships rather than one-off programmes, clearer pathways from education to employment and shared accountability for outcomes across government, education providers and employers.
When collaboration is structured for the long term, skills development becomes more consistent, transitions into employment become smoother and productivity gains become more durable. By aligning national priorities with workforce strategies and delivery on the ground, Kuwait can build a skills base that supports competitiveness, economic resilience and long-term growth.
