CAIRO: It seems as though a majority of Egyptians are pleased with the quality of education they received and/or are receiving. In a recent survey conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov Siraj, a whopping 83 percent of respondents from Egypt said they were satisfied with the educational background they received thus far. While only 17 percent responded as very satisfied, 33 percent said they were satisfied and another 33 percent chose somewhat satisfied. A small 4 percent chose very dissatisfied and only 12 percent were dissatisfied. Bayt.com is the Middle East's number one job site and partnered with market research specialists from YouGov Siraj to conduct the survey titled “Where are the Middle East's Fresh Graduates Heading?” In the Middle East and North African region overall, only 27 percent were very satisfied while 40 percent were satisfied and 24 percent somewhat satisfied. A small minority of 7 percent was dissatisfied and even smaller group of 2 percent were very dissatisfied with their college education quality. The highest number of respondents reporting being very satisfied came from Tunisia and Lebanon, with 39 percent and 38 percent respectively being very satisfied. In Egypt, a small group of respondents (9 percent) felt that their educational background had completely prepared them to aim for their industry of choice. Only 21 percent reported being prepared to a large extent and 38 percent said only to some extent. A group of 13 percent reported being hardly prepared and 11 percent said they were not prepared at all. In the MENA region overall, 21 percent said that their education completely prepared them to target their choice industry while 22 percent said to a large extent and 33 percent said only to some extent. Only 9 percent chose hardly and 6 percent said their educational background did not prepare them at all. Between all the countries surveyed, Qatar garnered the highest level of satisfaction with 29 percent reported being completely prepared for the industry of their choosing and 26 percent said to a large extent. Chief Executive Officer of Bayt.com, Rabea Ataya, has been quoted as saying, “The figures are interesting because they show that against the current backdrop of challenging economic conditions, respondents are still very satisfied with the education they are receiving.” From a career standpoint, the most appealing industries to those surveyed were banking/finance (20 percent), IT (20 percent) and engineering (16 percent). Business management and telecommunications followed with both falling at 14 percent while education and oil, gas and petrochemicals trailed both at 13 percent. Human resources and electronics both landed with 10 percent while airline was only reported by 9 percent. The most attractive sectors were IT at 19 percent and engineering/design also at 19 percent, but the least attractive was electronics at 9 percent. “Apart from giving employers a unique glimpse into the mindset of their freshest pool of recruits in the MENA region, it is also a great tool for education institutions to rate their services and adapt their curriculums to today's job markets,” said Ataya. Overall, the top three industries hiring the most were banking (20 percent), IT (18 percent) and education institutions (15 percent). The business management consultancy sector was the least (10 percent). In Egypt, the top industries recruiting were banking/finance (19 percent), IT (16 percent) and engineering/design (16 percent) while the military/defense/police sector (6 percent) was found to be recruiting the least. In the MENA region, salary expectations were the top chosen benefit expected from a job, but differed in various countries. Those in UAE and Qatar expected much higher salary while Egypt and Jordan had the lowest expectations. Overall, 67 percent of those surveyed were optimistic that today's generation had more opportunities in terms of education and careers than their parent's generation. “We conducted this report to chart the region's current level of education and also to study what fields are perceived to be the best in terms of chances for employment,” stated Ataya. The research survey was conducted during July 25 and August 15, 2010 with respondents totaling 5,996 from all over the MENA region, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Pakistan. All those surveyed were fresh graduates and current students and over 18 years old.
