Learning recommendations is the surface that suggests specific courses, programmes, or learning paths matched to the gaps the platform sees in an employee's competency profile. It is built around the Saudi learning ecosystem — IPA, TVTC, HRDF-supported programmes, university executive education, and the major MOOCs.
Where to find it
For HR / line manager: from a person's growth plan, scroll to the Recommended learning section. For the employee: /{slug}/me/learning.
How recommendations are generated
For each employee, the platform:
- Computes the largest gaps in their competency profile against their target role (or current role if no target is set).
- Queries your workspace's course catalogue (the courses you've added under Settings → Courses), filtered to those that address one or more of the gap competencies.
- Ranks the candidates with the model — using the gap profile, the employee's tenure and band, and the catalogue's ratings.
- Surfaces the top five.
Recommendations are generated on demand, never automatically. Opening an employee's profile makes no AI call on its own — instead, click Generate learning recommendations in the Through Learning card (or Generate / Regenerate inside a competency's detail dialog) to run the model. Re-run it whenever the profile changes (a new assessment lands, an interview is conducted) or the target role changes to refresh the suggestions.
What a recommendation looks like
Each recommendation card shows:
- Title and provider — e.g., Strategic Decision Making, IPA Riyadh.
- Format — online, in person — Riyadh, blended.
- Duration — 6 weeks, 2-day workshop, etc.
- Cost band — under SAR 5,000, SAR 5,000–20,000, over SAR 20,000.
- Competencies addressed — the taxonomy competencies this item is designed to develop.
- A short rationale — why this item, for this person, given their gaps.
- An Add to plan button — adds it as a milestone on the employee's growth plan.
The catalogue
The catalogue is workspace-owned: each workspace curates its own list of courses under Settings → Courses (HR admin only). Nothing is pre-seeded — until you add courses, the recommendation engine has nothing to surface. Each course you add can name any of the eleven Saudi-market providers the form offers:
- IPA (معهد الإدارة العامة) — public-administration, leadership, and specialist-track programmes (~70 programmes seeded).
- SCFHS-CPD (هيئة التخصصات الصحية — التطوير المهني المستمر) — clinical CPD activities that count toward re-registration hours. The regulator-anchored primary for healthcare growth plans.
- TVTC technical and vocational programmes — cybersecurity, cloud computing, applied data, OHS.
- University executive education — KFUPM Business Institute, KAUST Academy, KSU Executive Education, MBSC (Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College).
- Applied College short-cert tracks (HR fundamentals, applied accounting, IT support).
- HRDF programmes including the Sobol guidance workshops and Tamheer graduate development.
- Doroob — HRDF's online platform for workplace soft competencies and digital fundamentals.
- International providers as a curated fallback (PMP, CFA, CISSP, Harvard PON, Coursera, Prosci, INSEAD) — flagged with a no-local-provider notice.
The recommendation engine prefers Saudi providers in priority order (IPA → SCFHS-CPD → TVTC → KSU/KAUST/KFUPM/MBSC → Applied College → HRDF → Doroob → International) so that what gets surfaced first is what HRDF will subsidise and what NCA/SAMA/SCFHS will recognise.
Managing your catalogue
Go to Settings → Courses to add, edit, or remove courses. The list is searchable (by course name or provider) and filterable (by provider, tier, and delivery mode), and paginated — a Per page dropdown sets how many courses show at once (up to 50) — scrolling inside a fixed-height panel. Each course carries a bilingual name (Arabic + English), a provider, an optional tier (أساسية / قيادية / تخصصية), delivery mode (online / onsite / hybrid), duration, an HRDF-eligible flag, and a link.
Import from URL (AI). When you open Add course, the form shows an Import from URL box at the top. Paste a provider's course-page link and click Import — the platform fetches the page, reads it with the model, and pre-fills the fields it can support (bilingual name, provider, tier, delivery mode, duration, HRDF flag, link). It only fills what the page actually states and leaves the rest blank. This runs only when you click Import, and it never saves the course for you — you review and edit the draft, then press Save as usual.
The provider can be picked from the eleven known Saudi-market providers or typed freely as a custom provider name. A short program code (e.g. IPA-0164) is generated automatically — you don't enter it. Each field carries inline help:
- Tier — optional classification of the course (foundational / leadership / specialist) that helps the engine match it to an employee's seniority and band.
- Smooq cluster — an IPA "Smooq" taxonomy cross-reference; leave blank unless it's an IPA programme indexed in Smooq. Not used in ranking.
- HRDF eligible — tick when the programme qualifies for HRDF (هدف) funding; it shows an HRDF badge and is favoured in recommendations. The platform never transacts the funding.
- Direct course link — on when the URL opens the specific course page; turn it off when the URL only opens the provider's catalogue index, so the card reads Browse provider catalog instead of View course.
Edits take effect the next time someone generates recommendations.
Adding to the plan
When you (HR, manager, or employee) click Add to plan on a recommendation, a milestone is created on the plan with:
- The recommendation's title as the milestone title.
- The recommendation's rationale as the milestone description.
- The competencies addressed as the milestone's linked competencies.
- Status Not started by default.
The recommendation card on the learning surface flips to a Added to plan state so you do not double-add.
What is not in v0.5
- Funding workflow. The platform does not initiate HRDF or other funding requests on the employee's behalf; that workflow lives in the funder's own systems. The platform notes when a recommended item is HRDF-eligible but does not transact.
- Course provider integration. The platform does not enroll the employee or fetch progress; you mark milestones as in-progress or done manually.
Next
The activity log — how every change to a plan is tracked — is the final page in this section.