CAIRO: Marking a further expansion of the private sector into Egyptian education, Crédit Agricole Egypt inked a deal with the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) Thursday to devote nearly LE 5 million over the next five years to found and run "career development centers at Egyptian universities in order to improve the skills of graduates. The program which falls under the auspices of the EJB's Key Program, started last year to study the modern job market - and thus, the skills needed to fit it - and to build "a permanent blueprint that will address the ever-growing gap between graduates' skills and the skills demanded in the high caliber job market, Crédit Agricole stated in a release. With the bank's support, four career centers should open over the next 15 months, said Ahmed Sabbour, EJB's chairman. Private companies' role in traditionally state-run fields like education has accelerated here over the past half-decade, as public private partnerships and corporate responsibility programs have begun to draw greater attention. In recent years the state has encouraged or sponsored several programs aimed at getting the private sector involved in schools, such the Egyptian Education Initiative, a partnership between Egypt and the World Economic Forum's IT members that provides public schools with computers, training programs and other services. Egypt's dearth of skilled labor is a common complaint among businesspeople here. Even as sectors like banking and real estate have expanded over past years, the unemployment rate has hovered above 10 percent. Some firms, such as Summit Technology Solutions, receive state support for training programs in exchange for promising to employ graduates. Last year, the World Economic Forum listed labor market inefficiency as one of the sharpest problems burdening the Egyptian economy in its annual Global Competitiveness Report.
