CAIRO: "It's a fact of life, whether we like it nor not; we are in a global economy and people now - even if they live in Egypt or the US - are competing with people elsewhere in the world, Ambassador Theodore Kattouf, president and CEO of America-Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST), told Daily News Egypt. AMIDEAST's mission, he explained, is to expand opportunities through education and training. A mission strengthened by a recent partnership between AMIDEAST and the Educational Testing Services (ETS). Last week, AMIDEAST was named Egypt's Country Master Distributor by ETS in recognition of the role it plays in the fields of education and training. This agreement will see AMIDEAST as the exclusive distributor of a variety of ETS products. There are two particular assessment tools that this partnership will focus on, namely the Test of English for International Communications (the TOEIC), and the TOEFL Institutional Testing Program (ITP). "AMIDEAST offers a range of programs and services and English language teaching is one of them, some people pay for this individually, sometime corporations, and scholarships for secondary education, but everybody wants to demonstrate whether to a university or to a potential employer that 'I have attained a certain level of English therefore I can function in a academic environment or a workplace environment that requires me to speak English, to write English and to understand English', he said. The TOEIC test is a workplace test and will allow prospective and current employees to demonstrate that they have achieved a professional level in English for business. The TOEFL will document the level of English that students have attained and judge whether that they have sufficient English language skills to study at any given university. Kattouf further explained that if you are trying to establish a call center in Egypt you are competing with people in India, Philippines and someone who wants to invest will be judging the level of English and the cost of labor in the country. "This is a way for people who are ambitious and dedicated to show future employers that they are qualified to take the job and it's a way to set [you] apart from others who haven't achieved the same level as you have. The same goes for admission to university, he pointed out. The relationship between ETS and AMIDEAST started in 1976, described as a relationship built on honest dialogue. "They now have complete control over ensuring the best quality in administrating these tools to measure success, Zoubair Yazid, managing director of ETS Global, said. AMIDEAST has been in Egypt since 1956, working to expand opportunities for Egyptians through its English language programs, professional training programs, advising and scholarship management services, and its testing services as well. "ETS chose us not because we have been here a long time and we know Egypt well but also because our good record concerning test security and when you are offering tests for admission to university or jobs, integrity, honesty [and] test security are vital, Kattouf said. AMIDEAST has been offering ETS's examinations to Egyptians, these popular assessment tools which have helped a variety of people to achieve their educational and professional goals, including the Scholastic Aptitude Test, known as the SAT, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, known as the TOEFL, and the Graduate Record Examination, known as the GRE. "AMIDEAST is continuously working to expand opportunities to Egyptians through itS testing services and training programs, said Taher Helmy, senior partner at Helmy, Hamza and Partners and AMIDEAST board member. The theme of event celebrating the partnership between AMIDEAST and ETS was 'Linking School Performance to Workplace Success.' "For Egypt to compete on the global level, education and workplace must align [because] economic growth will not be achieved without this alignment, said Helmy. Devid Godsend, country director of AMIDEAST Egypt, noted that countries such as China and India who have linked education to the workplace have turned overpopulation which is perceived as a burden into an advantage. "The entire region faces the challenge of providing education and meaningful employment, said Kattouf, pointing out that according to the UNDP report, 51 million jobs must be created in the next 10 years. He quoted US President Obama's Cairo speech in which he recognized that improving education and innovation is the key formula for addressing the primary obstacle to sustainable development and job creation when he said, "But all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century, and in too many Muslim communities there remains underinvestment.
