Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD) has told private-sector establishments with 50 or more workers to disclose their training data on the Qiwa platform before 31 January 2027. The notice, published on 2 November 2026 (22 Jumada I 1448), says disclosure is mandatory for every covered establishment, whether or not it ran any training during the year. Only about half of covered firms have been filing.
Key Highlights
- Who: private establishments with 50 or more workers.
- Deadline: 31 January 2027, through the establishment's account on Qiwa.
- No training is not an exemption. A firm that trained nobody must declare that it did not train.
- What to report: trainees, programmes, training hours and their cost.
- Fine: SAR 5,000 under item 50 of the labour violations schedule now in force (Decision 112377). Older Ministry notices quote higher amounts by size. See below.
- Compliance so far: more than 53% of covered firms disclosed for 2025, up from more than 38% for 2024.
Details
The obligation is not new. A ministerial decision announced in August 2023 requires establishments with 50 or more workers to disclose their training activity every year. The Ministry's announcement at the time listed what it covers:
- training hours and the data behind them;
- the number of trainees who completed training, in four groups: employees, students, graduates and job seekers;
- at least eight training units per trainee per year;
- the establishment's training plans, reports, trainee numbers and the total budget it commits to for the coming year.
The 2026 notice repeats the core rule and adds the point most firms miss. An establishment that ran training reports trainees, programmes, hours and costs. One that ran none reports that it ran none, "while remaining bound by the training requirements set by law".
The filing itself sits in Qiwa. According to the Ministry's November 2025 notice, the establishment owner opens the establishment account, chooses the Training Management service, enters the training activities and programmes, then saves or submits them within the window.
The Fine: Two Ministry Figures
This is where the published numbers disagree.
The Ministry's notice of 10 November 2025, for the round that closed on 31 January 2026, set fines by size:
| Workers | Fine | Repeat |
|---|---|---|
| 50 to 499 | SAR 5,000 | SAR 10,000 |
| 500 to 2,999 | SAR 10,000 | SAR 20,000 |
| More than 3,000 | SAR 15,000 | SAR 30,000 |
Three months later the Minister issued Ministerial Decision No. 112377 of 21/8/1447H (9 February 2026), which replaced the whole schedule of labour violations and penalties. We read the copy on the Ministry's website. Item 50, "failure of the establishment to disclose training data annually according to the applicable rules", is rated non-grave. It carries SAR 5,000 for Category A (50 or more workers) and "not applicable" for the two smaller categories. The table has no size tiers above 50 and no repeat amount. Clause 9 of the decision says it repeals anything that conflicts with it.
The 2 November 2026 notice gives no amount at all. Our reading is that the 2026 schedule governs, so the fine is SAR 5,000 for any covered firm. We have not found a Ministry statement that says so directly, and a firm with 500 or more workers should not budget on our reading alone.
Two related points from the same schedule:
- Item 51, failure to train Saudi workers according to the ratios and mechanisms set by the Minister, costs SAR 500 per untrained worker, again for Category A only.
- A first violation may qualify for the 80% reduction under Decision 93442, subject to its conditions, which would bring SAR 5,000 down to SAR 1,000. We explain those conditions in our guide to the Decision 112377 schedule.
Why the Ministry Wants the Data
The notice says the disclosures have built a single national training database. The Ministry already uses it for two decisions: cooperative training for students, which had passed 120,000 beneficiaries by the end of 2025, and the training of graduates and job seekers at 2% of total workers in covered establishments. In other words, the data you file feeds the next obligations, not only the statistics.
What to Do Before 31 January
- Check the headcount. The 2026 schedule counts all workers registered with the Ministry under the establishment's unified number, not per commercial registration.
- Collect the year's records now: who was trained, in which programme, how many hours, at what cost. Include on-the-job training if you can document it.
- If you trained nobody, file the declaration anyway. It is the cheapest way to avoid SAR 5,000.
- Assign an owner for the Training Management service in Qiwa, and keep the submission receipt.
Training disclosure sits next to the other Qiwa duties covered by the Nitaqat calculator, which checks your Saudization band, and our work regulation guide. If your training records live in spreadsheets and the HR system cannot produce hours and costs per trainee, that is an integration problem. Our Qiwa and HR systems integration guide covers how to fix it, or contact us.
Sources: HRSD notice, 2 November 2026, HRSD notice, 10 November 2025, HRSD announcement of the decision, 19 August 2023, Ministerial Decision 112377 (PDF)