Skill House Advisory — Learning & Performance. Saudi Arabia & MENA

What we do

Three practices, one direction.

Each can be engaged on its own. Each is stronger with the others. Most clients start with the first — it pays for the rest.

Academy build

Institute licensing, programme accreditation and HRDF approved-centre status. Your L&D function becomes a licensed, funded entity and a visible contributor to Vision 2030 workforce targets.

TVTC institute licenceMonth 2

First programme accreditedMonth 3

HRDF approved centreMonth 5

Learning experience & content design

We design the programmes and supervise their delivery to a business standard, not an accreditation minimum. Designed by Skill House, delivered by your academy.

DiscoveryWeeks 1–4

PracticeWeeks 5–10

TransferWeeks 11–16

Performance management

We prove the learning moved the number. Observed behaviour plotted against business performance — before a programme to target spend, after it to evidence return. Hover the grid.

Under-equippedA genuine skill gap. The core candidate for a funded cohort.

▲ BehaviourPerformance ▶

H / M / L = high, medium, low · behaviour first, performance second

Funding is the consequence, not the purpose.

A programme built only to satisfy the fund builds nothing. Same licence, same accreditation, entirely different design intent. We design every programme against the business result — and the funding follows.

The mechanism

Your hiring is already a funding event.

Through the HRDF train-to-hire route, a licensed and approved academy draws a flat monthly rate for every Saudi national it trains and places into your own business.

0SAR

Per head, per month, flat

0months

Programme duration

0SAR

Funding per head, per hire

Flat. The rate does not move with your cost base, so efficiency in the academy is margin you keep.

Standing. Once approved, it is not a grant you chase. It is the mechanism underneath your frontline recruitment.

Yours. Your own intake, trained to your standards, placed into your own stores and sites.

How many Saudi nationals do you hire a year?

Frontline, store, warehouse and support roles the academy would serve.

Hires per year500

501,0002,0003,000

SAR6.0M

Annual funding at the flat train-to-hire rate

Illustrative, at SAR 12,000 per accredited hire. Actual entitlement depends on job families, programme accreditation and placement performance — confirmed in a free two-week diagnostic.

The journey, once already

From an L&D function to an HRDF strategic partner.

The corporate academy we built started as a training department inside a national retail group. Seven steps later it is a licensed institute, an approved train-to-hire centre and one of HRDF's named strategic partners. The route below is the one we now run for clients.

01 · Function

An L&D team, a cost centre

Onboarding and product training for the stores. Good work, funded entirely from the business's own budget.

02 · Case

Hiring reframed as funding

The volume of Saudi frontline hires was mapped against the train-to-hire rate. The board saw a P&L, not a training plan.

03 · Entity

A legal academy, its own roof

Commercial registration, municipality and civil defence, a dedicated venue and its first headcount.

04 · Licence

TVTC licence, first programme accredited

The institute licence, then programme accreditation. The step every later step depends on.

05 · Approved

HRDF train-to-hire centre

Approved-centre status secured. From this point every placed hire draws the flat monthly rate.

SAR 34M first-year revenue

06 · Partner

HRDF strategic partner

Named among the fund's 26 strategic partners in 2026. The academy is no longer a client of the fund; it is part of how the fund delivers.

07 · Scale

Cohorts, placement, quality stack

NELC accreditation for digital delivery, a widening programme portfolio, and an intake that keeps growing.

1,100 trained · 800 placed

Steps 01 to 05 are a project. Steps 06 and 07 are an operating discipline.

We run the first five for you in about five months, below. The last two are yours to earn, with the operating model that earns them built in from day one.

The route

From first conversation to first funded cohort.

Six phases across six months. The first is free, the second is yours, and the rest are ours to run.

PhaseM1M2M3M4M5M6

Phase 02 weeks · no fee

Discovery and diagnostic

A discovery call, then a data session with your HR team. You leave with a funding case and a programme shortlist, whether or not you engage us.

Phase 1Parallel · you lead

Establishment prerequisites

Entity, municipality, civil defence and venue. Your team runs it in parallel, against our facility specification.

Phase 21 month

Design and documentation

Operating model, governance, curriculum and assessment design, and the full accreditation file.

Phase 3~1.5 months

TVTC licence and first programme accreditation

Licence secured and the first programme accredited. Further programmes follow on a shorter cycle.

Phase 42 months

HRDF submission and approved-centre status

Starts once the first programme is accredited, not before. From here the funding route is open.

Phase 52 weeks

Cohort mobilisation

Sourcing, selection and launch of the first intake, once approved-centre status is in hand — so the first cohort is funded from its first day, not retrospectively.

20weeks

Critical path to approved-centre status

4months

Programme length, cohort start to completion

6months

From cohort start to first collection; later collections clear in a month or less

One sequencing point drives the entire timeline.

HRDF approved-centre status cannot be secured until at least one programme is accredited. Any plan showing the two in parallel is wrong, and will cost you a quarter.

You own this

Commercial registration for the training entity
Municipality permit and civil defence approval
Venue — lease, fit-out, classrooms and facilities
Chamber, Qiwa, GOSI and the usual registrations
Appointing the academy's own headcount

We own this

TVTC institute licensing — file, submission, follow-through
Programme accreditation — design, documentation, approval
HRDF registration and approved-centre status
Academy operating model, governance and curriculum architecture
Trainer standards and first cohort launch

Track record

Built before, not theorised.

We are currently building a licensed academy for a leading GCC retail group. The figures below are from work already completed, including the corporate academy we took from concept to a licensed, HRDF-funded entity.

First-year revenue of the corporate academy we built — concept to licensed HRDF entity

Placement rate — 1,100 trained, 800 placed

0partners

HRDF named strategic partners in 2026 — the academy we built is one of them

Improvement across 29 indicators — Coca-Cola KSA

Units per transaction — Zohoor Alreef

0M+

Attributable value from training and performance — Arabian Oud

How the numbers are isolated

Line-manager-scored behaviour is plotted against sales per associate, before and after. Store openings, launches, promotions, incentive changes and regional seasonality are isolated out. We show the method, not only the result.

The founder

Ibrahim Elsharkawy.

Founder, Skill House · General Manager, Arabian Academy

Fifteen years building learning and performance systems for retail and consumer businesses across MENA. The academy model on this page is not a framework he read about; it is the one he built, licensed and now runs.

01Presidential Labor Medal, First GradeArab Republic of Egypt
02Premium Residency — investor category, Saudi Arabia
03Top 50 HR Leaders, Saudi Arabia
04CIPD Associate & Tutor
05PHR — Professional in Human Resources

Where the work was done

Arabian Academy

Arabian Oud

Al Jasser Holding

Landmark Group

Zohoor Alreef

Vodafone

Raya CX

Carrefour

Cinnabon

Capability thatshows up inthe numbers.

Three practices, one direction.

Academy build

Learning experience & content design

Performance management

Funding is the consequence, not the purpose.

Your hiring is already a funding event.

From an L&D function to an HRDF strategic partner.

An L&D team, a cost centre

Hiring reframed as funding

A legal academy, its own roof

TVTC licence, first programme accredited

HRDF train-to-hire centre

HRDF strategic partner

Cohorts, placement, quality stack

Steps 01 to 05 are a project. Steps 06 and 07 are an operating discipline.

From first conversation to first funded cohort.

Discovery and diagnostic

Establishment prerequisites

Design and documentation

TVTC licence and first programme accreditation

HRDF submission and approved-centre status

Cohort mobilisation

One sequencing point drives the entire timeline.

Built before, not theorised.

How the numbers are isolated

Ibrahim Elsharkawy.

The next step is a conversation.