A new deal promises many more skilled workers on the labour market, reports Mona El-Fiqi Seven new enterprise training partnerships were signed within the framework of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) reform project on 31 July. The new partnerships launched in cooperation with several industrial authorities, such as the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Education. The TVET programme includes training partnerships in the housing sector, civil engineering, tourism, printing, leather products and chemical industries. TVET is co-funded by the government and the European Union as part of the MEDA partnership. It aims at improving the quality of skilled labour to meet current and future needs of the industrial sector, which will in turn improve the competitiveness of human resources. According to TVET regulations, a trainee is paid LE150 during his first month training, and receives LE200 in the second, and then he is provided a well-paid job in one of the participating sectors. The project was launched by a presidential decree in December 2003, which was approved by parliament two months later. Operations began in July 2005 and will continue until June 2011. Ambassador Klaus Ebermann, who heads the European Commission in Cairo, said TVET aims at alleviating an important and paradoxical challenge, namely marrying the large amount of open jobs at factories and number of skilled labour to fill them. "Professionalism is the aim of the programme," stated Ebermann. TVET can establish partnerships between production enterprises and various training providers serving an industrial sector. This is based on giving the private sector the initiative in determining the training priorities of the sector, and accordingly providing the training programmes and developing the curricula according to identified market needs. Moreover, TVET provides the technical support to implement these training projects, the necessary tools and training equipment, as well as monitoring and evaluation methods. In its infancy, the programme chose five industrial sectors to begin implementing TVET policy, including ready-made garments, food processing, furniture, engineering and construction materials. TVET Director Mohamed Helal described that phase as successful since it created 30,000 training packages in these five sectors -- 40 per cent of what is needed by the entire industrial sector. TVET has also established 110 highly-developed workshops inside the industrial zones, and 30 training workshops in technical high schools. It also helped improve 32 training centres of ready- made garments, and provided jobs for more than 15,000 workers after being trained in this sector. "In accordance with international standards, TVET also succeeded in upgrading 1,000 trainers and instructors, who will further help improve the qualification and skills of their workforce," stated Helal. Certified training providers, as well as qualified trainers and instructors administer TVET training courses. They themselves have been trained by local and international experts, representing the highest level of expertise in their respective fields. An expert in the ready-made garments, who preferred to be anonymous, said that the programme provided very successful training courses to hundreds of trainers throughout the country. This is particularly true in Alexandria and Port Said, where a large number of ready- made garment factories are located. She added that the programme will provide more advanced courses to trainers in two years, to keep them updated with the most recent technology in their sector.
