The Egyptian job market is caught between an education system disconnected from economic reality and a global financial crisis that is changing the rules of the game, Nesmahar Sayed reports Fadel Tawfik, owner of an aluminum factory in Shubra Al-Kheima, cannot find enough workers for his factory. Despite the government's shockingly high unemployment figures, there are no applicants for his vacancies. "There is a shortage of qualified technical workers to work in factories. Graduates of technical high schools care more about the amount of money they earn than the quality of work they do," says a frustrated Tawfik. According to Tawfik, the daily income for a junior worker in his factory is around LE15 to LE17. On the other hand the daily income for a tuk tuk (three-wheel taxi) driver is LE50. "That's why they prefer to drive a tuk tuk to going on a training course and starting a career. They are after the quick profit," he said. Tawfik laments the substandard quality of technical education. He suggests that the only way out of this crisis is cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Interior to stop teenagers from leaving schools and ensure they attend classes. Shahenaz Ahmed, CEO of the Education for Employment Foundation, agrees with Tawfik and adds that the problem is access to quality education. Ahmed says the only way to correct the defects of the education system is to conduct training courses. Adel Khalifa, owner and the recruitment director of Career Finders recruitment agency believes that Egypt is a young economy that offers many opportunities. There are over 30,000 companies in Egypt now, he says. "Many are transforming themselves from family owned businesses to more organised entities similar to multinationals," he said. "This means that the growth in the Egyptian economy these days comes from local companies." These companies, according to Khalifa, have vacancies in management positions and human resources. Marketing and finance jobs are also high in demand according to Khalifa because "they are the heart of the company." Sales jobs are also one of the best jobs in demand. With the economic crisis, companies have rediscovered the need to market themselves more aggressively." Khalifa agrees that job specialisation is needed while the economy is maturing. But though he is optimistic regarding opportunities in the market he is realistic that the supply of qualified workers is limited. "Job seekers must have strong language and computer skills, in addition to social skills." As one who interacts directly with the recruitment market, Khalifa says the global crisis has created demand for fresh graduates and young people. "Recently, 60 per cent of the CVs we receive are from fresh graduates and they succeed to be hired, particularly by multinational companies working in Egypt." This is a way to overcome the high salaries demanded by senior staff. Khalifa pointed out that since the outbreak of the crisis, companies adopted an attitude of doing more with the same or lower number of employees. "Globally this is the name of the game." According to a study published by the Egyptian Centre For Economic Studies (ECES), the LE13 billion that has been pumped into the economy during the second half of the financial year 2008/ 2009 should have created more than 133,000 jobs, but this did not happen, taking into consideration the increase in the number of unemployed since the beginning of the crisis. "The number of jobless people in Egypt has increased. And many of the unemployed have extensive experience, especially in the field of manufacturing because it is one of the fields that employs a large number of Egyptians," said Bassel Hemeida, managing partner of Antal International Network. Both Hemeida and the ECES study stress that the sectors most affected during the third quarter of the financial year 2008/2009 were tourism and industry; namely, the sectors hiring the largest number. Another sector that cut a lot of jobs is the construction sector. Emmanuelle Chatelain, recruitment consultant and partner at Career Finders, believes that this is not a suitable time for changing careers. Instead, she says, employees could benefit from a new trend whereby companies retrain their workforce to do new jobs.
