CAIRO: While partnerships between the private and public sector towards a developmental objective is common, mobilizing the private sector and education ministries across the Arab world is quite a feat. Injaz Al-Arab is doing just that in a bid to create a new generation of business-oriented youth and entrepreneurs. The education organization works on bridging the gap between the private sector and the education system. It sends corporate volunteers into public schools and universities, for an hour a week for 10 weeks during which they share their professional expertise with youth, giving them practical training on how to succeed in the working world. “We are trying to instill in them the skills that they need to succeed in the real world,” Soraya Salti, MENA's senior vice president of Junior Achievement Worldwide and Injaz Al-Arab regional director, told Daily News Egypt. “Education systems typically don't have any connections with the private sector, the employment world, so what we're trying to do is at a young age instill that culture and the way of thinking that the private sector deems as important so that we increase their likelihood for success and employment or becoming entrepreneurs,” she explained. Working under the slogan “Empowering the Next Generations,” actively engages communities in inspiring and education future generations. “You empower them by sharing experience, you empower them by…acting as a mentor, you empower them by giving them an opportunity to be exposed to situations where they can role play, what is experiential learning through which they will get to know what it is to be a business person,” explains Aftab Ahmed, country officer at Citi Group, one of the main partners of Injaz Egypt ever since it started in 2003. In a country where youth unemployment is one of the biggest challenges, Injaz Egypt harnesses the mentorship of the country's business leaders to help inspire and create a culture of entrepreneurism and business innovation among the youth. “Here in Egypt, you have two worlds, the working world, [which includes] the private sector, who are looking for skilled workforce and not finding it, and at the other end of the spectrum you have youth graduating from the education system who are frustrated that they can't get qualified for jobs although they all have these great certificates,” said Dina El Mofty, executive director of Injaz Egypt. “So it's about bringing these two worlds closer together; having people from the corporate world who have the knowledge about the business skills and about how the business world works and what knowledge you need to have to get a good job, get a proper career in the corporate world which they transfer to students from public schools and universities,” she explained. “You're bringing communities closer together which is critical and that's the way our country can move on and that's how to engage in economic prosperity in the country by having that type of collaboration happen,” El Mofty noted. Injaz courses work on three main arenas, work readiness in which students are taught personal life planning, success skills, leadership, business ethics and have a job shadow day. There is also financial literacy which covers personal economics and includes enterprise in action. Citigroup's the Bank-in-Action Simulation is a good example; it teaches students about the banking world, strategies and ways to run banks. The third arena covered is entrepreneurship. Only last month, US President Barack Obama referred to Salti in his speech at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, saying, “We have people like Soraya Salti of Jordan who are empowering the young men and women who will be leaders of tomorrow. Together, they represent the great potential and expectations of young people around the world.” “[Entrepreneurship education is important as] youth today are graduating and will become employees of choice and some will have to create their own employment opportunities,” said Salti. “The labor market size today is 54 million jobs and you have 100 million young people coming into the labor market so it can't grow as fast as needed to generate the employment for these youth so those who join corporations will have to be entrepreneurial in their thinking so that these corporations grow faster and can accommodate more human resources,” she explained, “And for those who can't find jobs and … have that tendency to be entrepreneurs that they can create their own employment opportunity and not just sit back and wait,” she explained. The intention is not only to develop people with business skills for purposes of running their own businesses but also becoming employees of choice when it comes to hiring by having the necessary skills so they are viewed as a tangible resource that will help in building that company, Ahmed added. Citi Group, which contributes globally to Junior Achievement Worldwide and regionally to Injaz, find corporate social responsibility an important concept for all corporations. “When you are operating in a country, it is important that you make a contribution to the environment where you operate as a franchise, CSR is something that Citi takes very seriously and is very committed to, it shows ... in multiple different ways,” said Ahmed. “Information, exposure basically makes [the youth] better informed, better armed to handle the challenges of the real world and that is our true intent, having people come out they are better positioned to be successful in life and if we can make a contribution by giving them the necessary exposure, will be a plus,” Ahmed said, referring to Citi's employees' sharing their experience with the youth. Injaz has a number of key supporters in Egypt including the UNDP, Mobinil and the American University in Cairo. Ahmed explains that it is crucial to have many corporations coming together. “It is critical because this is a very large initiative, you have a 100 million youth coming in the labor market, this is not something that one or two organizations can handle on their own, this is a case where all the companies as well as the government bodies will have to come together in partnership and work on a cohesive basis to reach that objective,” he said. “We're teaching collaboration so any solution will be a solution that requires collaboration because ministries of education have been on their own for 50-60 years and the outcome is what we see today. We have demonstrated a success story that you can create a private-public sector partnership and an education where the private sector is bringing their knowledge and know-how but also top-notch curricula which they helped invest, support and develop,” said Salti.
