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TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE
Last month’s Viewpoint emphasized how Egypt’s educational
system once produced great thinkers and professionals. But in the
not-too-distant past, Egypt was also known for the quality of its
technicians and craftsmen. Vocational training was an important
option for students whose talents were more technical than intellectual.
These students could choose from a variety of technical trades,
based on their ability to meet the exacting standards of their teachers,
and the high caliber of their work added to the quality of life
in Egypt as a whole.
A glance around Cairo today, however, suggests that the availability
of top-notch training, whether for professionals, technicians or
craftsmen, has greatly declined, at a time when, as Egypt industrializes,
many new types of expertise are required in addition to the old.
That same glance shows a lot of people without jobs, even though
there’s so much to be done.
The mismatch between market demands and qualified individuals has
grown to such an extent that everyone – the consumers of services
and products, the people who provide them, and the country as a
whole – is suffering.
The Industrial Training Council (ITC), founded last year by Minister
of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid, has the resources to
turn this mismatch into an opportunity. The council’s aim
is to improve the level of training available to Egyptians nationwide.
In addition to addressing the training needs of university graduates,
the ITC primarily aims to increase the supply of skilled workers
through a demand-driven training process whereby industry owners
and operators identify their needs, and the ITC delivers the proper
training through independent, qualified providers – covering
80 percent of the cost. This is a big incentive, and private sector
enterprises stand to profit from greater productivity by bringing
their human resources up to par.
Many state-sponsored training institutions, programs and facilities
are available to provide the training. So far, however, their efforts
have not been organized to be mutually supportive, nor have they
been aligned with a changing market’s needs. Currently, by
ITC estimates, 90 percent of public and private sector funds allocated
for training go towards developing managerial skills, with the remaining
10 percent dedicated to labor. This imbalance means that not only
are local enterprises unable to find the right staff, but most of
the people who have worked hard to become managers will have an
even harder time finding a job.
Fortunately, we have the finance – and the motivation –
to do things differently. The ITC’s 2007 budget includes state
funding of over LE 0.5 billion, in addition to EU, World Bank and
other international donor contributions. Under the ministry’s
auspices, the ITC will coordinate the various training activities,
allocating funds, overseeing accreditation, and conducting assessments
of training institutions and trainees, not by the number of certificates
that get issued, but by the quality of the work that went into earning
them.
The ITC is a step forward, one the business community has every
reason to support, but that shouldn’t keep us from pursuing
other education-related initiatives. Some readers may recall the
Don Bosco school in Rod Al Farag. Established in 1926, it provided
an excellent technical background to young men on a secondary school
level, alongside other basic skills. Many of those students had
shown little aptitude in primary school, and would have had a hard
time getting into college, but Don Bosco recognized their potential
and gave it a productive outlet. The graduates were so respected,
they were granted direct admission to the Cairo University Faculty
of Engineering as second-year students. Recently, a private initiative
was launched to revive the Don Bosco tradition, updating and adapting
it as a model for other vocational high schools. Incidentally, the
Don Bosco school is located in a beautiful old building, whose craftsmanship,
cleanliness and upkeep were meant to inspire respect and pride.
By now, we know that education is our biggest challenge, especially
when university graduates lack the necessary qualifications to get
a job. But until we revamp our education system, we’ll need
to provide supplementary training to college graduates. At the same
time, we need more vocational training schools that directly address
Egypt’s changing needs. Not everyone is cut out for every
job, but everyone has something they can learn to do well. By providing
people with more options for personal development, we’ll get
a better match of talent and skill, and beneficial end-results that
we can all be proud of.
OMAR A. MOHANNA
President, AmCham Egypt
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