The Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Investment plans to cooperate with the Ministry of Youth to provide 20,000 job opportunities in April in the governorates of Minya, Daqahleya and Giza, said a Saturday statement by the foreign ministry. According to Industry Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour Abdel Nour, providing job opportunities for the country's youth is one of the most important means "to overcome the unemployment problem that Egypt suffers from". Abdel Nour added that his ministry is working to develop vocational training and technical education to meet the needs of the labour market, highlighting that the national vocational training programme has provided 96,139 job opportunities in 417 companies from October 2013 to March 2014 . The companies operate in the sectors of food processing, engineering, chemicals, textiles, printing, building materials and leather, in addition to the services and commercial sectors. The minister added that the job opportunities provided during the lasted six months were in Cairo, Fayoum, Assiut, Gharbeya, Sharqeya, Alexandria, Minya and Sohag. He noted that the Industrial Training Council will provide training programmes for those who have managed to obtain jobs in order to improve their skills and productivity. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced in February that unemployment has been steady since the last quarter of 2013, at 13.4%. The youth constituted 69% of total unemployed labour force during this time, decreasing by 1.8% since Q3 FY 2013. Hala ElSaeed, economic professor in Cairo University, said that such rates are "very high", adding that 750,000 to 800,000 job opportunities should be provided to fresh graduates each year to alleviate the high percentage of unemployment. Executive director at the Industrial Training Council Mahmoud ElSherbiny said that 27,624 of the 37,060 individuals who had applied for jobs were accepted by 338 companies. He added that the number of applicants are fewer than the job opportunities provided, "which necessitates spreading awareness among the youth" regarding the importance of working in the private sector.
