EDT Managing Director International, Fadi Khalek, reflects on global education and skills themes at Human Capability Initiative 2025

Integral to the Saudi Vision 2030 realisation programmes, the outcomes of HCI will help the nation to build an empowered workforce for the future. 

The conference was a fantastic two days sparking conversations with over ten ministerial delegations, including Ministries of Education from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa and South Korea. It also offered valuable opportunities to join interactive roundtable discussions, workshops, labs, and large auditorium panels. 

Fadi connected with leaders to share EDT’s vast knowledge, experience and track record in future readiness, and how we are expanding our operations in Saudi Arabia. Reflecting on the various talks and conversations across the two days, Fadi shares below some insights and food for thought. 

Fadi’s reflections on the key themes of HCI 2025 

Digital transformation: “This still seems to be the focus of almost every Ministry of Education strategy,” said Fadi. “However, there seems to be a great deal of learned lessons on how not to do digital transformation in education and an emphasis on, while such transformation is more crucial than ever, approaching it correctly. What that ‘correctly’ means is where ministries and organisations can use some help.

“We can help governments and organisations take a more educationally driven approach to edtech and digital transformation, with greater educational impact. The old excuses of access, equity and digital divide are no longer entirely valid. In the exhibition accompanying the conference, there were many great examples of accessible technologies that can be made available to all – Nigeria provided good examples of such edtech innovations. However, we know that while for some governments technology offers value for money, for others it can increase expense with little impact – and this need for contextualisation is just one of the reasons we adopt our ‘education-led, tech-enabled' approach.” 

AI – the do's and don'ts: “While there is a widespread acknowledgement that the AI era is unavoidable and embracing AI within the education ecosystem is inevitable, the conference shed light on some key points around how to use, and how not to use, AI in education,” Fadi commented. “It can help teachers become more efficient, without students bypassing brain effort. It can also streamline end-to-end education processes, and bring competencies and employable skills closer to education. 

“As far as students are concerned, it should be clearly defined and articulated how and when to introduce AI. This is recognising that, no matter how advanced AI gets, it cannot undo the natural cognitive development process that happens in kids’ brains at various stages of their development. 

“Similar to digital transformation, EDT can bring in its expertise in evidence-led approaches to AI implementations. Moreover, since it was evident that there are more benefits to AI for teachers rather than students, EDT can bring AI into its already proved teacher development frameworks at their various career stages.” 

Focus on early childhood development (ECD): “It was clear that, when anyone spoke of ECD, they did not make huge distinctions between pre-primary and primary but rather focused on the continuum in child development, which is from pregnancy to age eight or nine,” said Fadi.

“It was discussed that, while everyone over the past ten to 15 years has focused on embedding work skills and future-proofing young adults – starting with secondary and tertiary students – no one has spoken about lifelong skills and future-proofing children during their cognitive development stage, which is at ages three to nine.

“There was also a big focus on play-to-learn approaches... playing for children is like working for adults. Again, there was lots of talk about the role digital technology should, or should not, play in early childhood development. Another big focus was workforce development for early years.

“With around half of all pre-primary aged children worldwide not enrolled in early childhood education, inequalities are created at an early age. However, at EDT we deeply understand the significant impact of ECE on individuals’ critical skills to succeed in school and beyond, and are looking forward to building on our successful delivery of ECE programmes which support quality early education, as we’ve already achieved in the UK, Kenya, Brunei and across the Middle East and Asia.”

HCI convened some highly valuable conversations on using education and skills to maximise human capabilities. We look forward to further opportunities to connect and work with likeminded partners to increase life chances around the world.