The German conglomerate Siemens announced that it will be offering the largest grant of its kind to support education in Egypt. The grant is estimated to be worth $120m and includes a package of the most modern digital industrial software. The grant aims to support training, higher education, and scientific research at the Faculties of Engineering at Cairo, Ain Shams, and Alexandria Universities. Announcing this grant came during the partnership signing ceremony between Siemens and the faculties of engineering at the three universities in the presence of Joe Kaiser, CEO and chairperson of Siemens Global. According to Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, the Siemens grant will enable students at the faculties of engineering at the three universities to train on using the same technology that international companies rely on to design some of the most complicated products. According to Kaiser, Siemens has been a strong partner of Egypt since 1859. He noted that the company is keen to deepen this partnership, as education and the empowerment of young people are the bases for creating a more sustainable future. Kaiser stressed the importance of working with Egyptian universities to train industry future leaders with the aim of supporting Egypt's vision for economic development and the economic transition based on knowledge and diversity in industrial activities. The partnership agreement includes making Siemens' software a main part of the curricula of engineering at the three universities in order to achieve the maximum benefit for the 35,000 trainees by training them to use integrated manufacturing software, in addition to robot design, industrial design, designing operational processes, work environment simulation, and the study of materials and projects, as well as training courses about manufacturing those materials. Siemens' initiative in Egypt includes cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to establish and operate a joint centre for technical training in Ain Sokhna, in addition to developing the Higher Technical Education Institute in Al-Amiria in Cairo, alongside developing Zein Al-Abidin Technical High School to operate in accordance with the German educational system.
