Supporting reform of technical education in Egypt

Context

The Egyptian labour market faces enormous challenges. Well trained non-academic skilled workers are in short supply, and youth unemployment is high. Women are at a particular disadvantage.

The Egyptian technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system is inadequately funded and not very efficient. This means it is not able to guarantee training to a level that meets the needs of the labour market. There is a lack of recognised, high-quality vocational qualifications, and likewise a shortage of qualified staff and technical equipment in technical schools.

This is where the national TVET reform strategy Technical Education (TE 2.0) comes in. It aims to improve technical education and the image it presents, as well as increasing its relevance in the labour market.

Objective

Implementation of Egypt’s technical education reform is more transparent, better quality, more relevant to the labour market and more gender-equitable.

Approach

The project contributes to further development of the reform of technical education. It focuses on four priority areas:

Financial management: The project promotes transparent and efficient financial planning and monitoring of technical education at the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE). To achieve this it ensures it is aligned with the Ministry of Finance’s guidelines, builds capacity to analyse financial processes and examines successful case studies from other countries.

Reform of the labour system: The project is introducing a test system in line with national standards so that acquired skills will be recognised. To do this it sets up test centres, involves the private sector as external testers and provides advice on the regulatory framework.

Support for technical schools: The project uses labour market information to improve the development of technical education provision. To this end it cooperates with network schools, involves the private sector in training and digitalises school planning.

Digital learning pathways: The project builds innovative digital courses, with a particular focus on women. It makes use of existing networks and skills-based assessment tools to do this. It improves curricula and trains teaching staff in digital methods.

Last update: August 2024