Evaluation of ETF Activities in Egypt

May 2008

1 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

2 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD, VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

An ETF funded project

The Evaluation Partnership & Gruppo Soges are the contractors of this evaluation.

Two EU experts, Mr Ton FARLA (Team leader, and evaluation specialist), Mr Ali DASTGEER (international expert) and two Egyptian experts, Mrs Ghada AMIN (local expert 1) and Mrs Heba NAIEM (local expert 2) comprised the external evaluation team and prepared this report.

The views and opinions expressed in the report are those of the evaluators and, as such; do not necessarily reflect those of the European Training Foundation. The European Training Foundation does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this report and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use.

3 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

TABLE OF CONTENT 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS 7

RELEVANCE, ADDED VALUE, EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPACT 9

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10 1.1. PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION 10 1.2. BACKGROUND OF THE EVALUATION 10 1.3. METHODOLOGY 10 1.4. SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS 11 1.4.1 THE INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS 11 1.4.2. THE OVERALL EVALUATION 13 1.4.3. RECOMMENDATIONS 15

2. INTRODUCTION 16 2.1. OVERVIEW OF ETF ACTIVITIES IN EGYPT 16 2.2. THE GENERAL TVET CONTEXT IN EGYPT 17 2.3. PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION 19

3. METHODOLOGY 20 3.1. OVERVIEW 20 3.2. EVALUATION TOOLS 21 3.3. EVALUATION ACTIVITIES 21 3.3.1. DESK WORK 21 3.3.2. INTERVIEWS 22 3.3.3. CASE STUDIES 22 3.3.4. THE ANALYTICAL PHASE 22

4. THE ASSESSMENT 23 4.1. THE EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS 23 4.1. P1. MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING FOR SME GROWTH WITHIN THE MEDA CONTEXT 23 4.1. P2. CONFERENCE ON INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING STANDARDS IN THE MASHREQ REGION” 24 4.1. P3. PROJECT IDENTIFICATION, FORMULATION AND CONTENT MONITORING 26 4 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

4.1. P4. DRAFTING OF THE POLICY STATEMENT ON THE REFORM OF TVET28 4.1. P5. COUNTRY OVERVIEW ON LABOUR MARKET POLICIES IN EGYPT 30 4.1. P6. HRD OBSERVATORY FUNCTION (OF) 32 4.1. P7. THE ‘COUNTRY ANALYSIS 2005’ OF EGYPT 34 4.1. P8. THE ‘TRANSITION FROM EDUCATION TO WORK’ PROJECT 35 4.1. P9. FINANCING OF VET SYSTEMS PROJECT 37 4.1. P10. INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN TEACHER AND TRAINER TRAINING IN THE MASHREQ REGION 39 4.1. P11. PATTERNS OF MIGRATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ISSUES 40 4.1. P12 NATIONAL QUALIFICATION FRAMEWORK IN EGYPT 43 4.1. P13. CAREER GUIDANCE POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN EGYPT’ 44

4.2. CASE STUDIES 47 4.2.1. THE OBSERVATORY FUNCTIONS 47 4.2.3. COORDINATION WITH OTHER DONORS 47

4.3. OVERALL EVALUATION 48 4.3.1. RELEVANCE 49 4.3.2. EFFECTIVENESS 50 4.3.3. EFFICIENCY 52 4.3.4. IMPACT 53 4.3.5. ADDED VALUE 55

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE EVALUATION56

6. ELABORATION ON RECOMMENDATIONS (POST-ETF DEBRIEFING) 64 ANNEXES

ANNEX 1. Terms of reference

ANNEX 2. Matrix of ETF activities 2001-2007

ANNEX 3. Case studies on Observatory Function and Donor cooperation

ANNEX 4. List of persons and organisations consulted

5 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report draws on the results of extensive deskwork visits to ETF in Turin, and field visits within Egypt. During the evaluation, the evaluation team interviewed a large range of Egyptian stakeholders, all of whom have been willing and helpful contributors.

The team would like to thank the staff of ETF for their open and constructive approach to the questions and challenges we have posed to them, and for the practical assistance they have provided to us by making available project information, annual work programmes, activity plans, mission reports, project documents and other relevant information and documentation. Moreover, ETF supported the evaluation team in compiling a list of stakeholders and experts it had worked with during the period 2000-2007.

In particular, we would like to thank Outi Karkkainen and Elena Carrero Perez for their continuous support and efforts.

6 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

BCTC Building and Construction Training Council

CAPMAS Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics

CBC Cross Border Cooperation

EC European Commission

EETEO Egyptian Education, Training and Employment Observatory

EFT Egyptian Federation for Tourism (The official Initials are ETF)

EFBC Egyptian Federation for Building and Contractors

EMIS Education Management Information System

ERSAP Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme

ET Evaluation Team

ETCP Egyptian Technical Colleges Project

ETF European Training Foundation

EU European Union

GoE Government of Egypt

GTZ German Technical Cooperation

HRD Human Resource Development

IB Institution Building

IC Italian Cooperation

IDSC Information and Decision Support Centre

ILP Innovation and Learning Project

ITC Industrial Training Council

ITF Italian Trust Fund

LDV Leonardo da Vinci

LLL Life Long Learning

7 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

LM Labour Market

MEDA Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

MoE Ministry of Education

MET Management and Entrepreneurship Training

MTI Ministry of Trade and Industry

MoMPeI Ministry of Manpower and Immigration

MS Member States

OF Observatory Function

OFN Observatory Function Network

PIP Project Implementation Plan

PVTD Productivity and Vocational Training Department

SDP Skills Development Programme

SME Small & Medium Sized Enterprise

SWAP Sector Wide Approach

SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats

TAP’s Technical and Administration Provision

TTC Tourism Training Council

ToR Terms of Reference

TVET Technical Vocational Education and Training

USAID US Agency for International Development

WB World Bank

WP Work Plan

8 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

RELEVANCE, ADDED VALUE, EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPACT

Five key evaluation criteria have been applied to the assessment of ETF interventions in Egypt: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, value added and impact. The ET assessed:

The relevance of ETF activities to the country’s needs and priorities and to the EC objectives

Relevance has been interpreted as the extent to which the intervention’s objectives are consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements, partners’ needs and priorities and EC policies and in line with the new ETF recast Regulation functions. It relates to the original design of the activities as well as to adjustments made in response to changing circumstances (e.g. in politics, policy, institutional, economic, social and environmental settings). It also seeks to ascertain if programme implementation was flexible enough to adapt to problems and challenges faced.

Effectiveness in terms of how intended outputs and results were achieved

Effectiveness had been interpreted as the extent to which the intervention’s objectives were achieved, taking into account their relative importance. It is measured by how much the intended beneficiaries actually benefited from the programmes, products or services; assessing the extent to which the programme’s results were achieved or their potential benefits were realised.

Efficiency in terms of how economically ETF resources were converted to results

Efficiency has been interpreted as the extent to which the project finances and human resources produced the intended results, added greater value or impact; to what extent ETF donor-coordination contributed to economies of scale and complementarities of the use of ETF resources in Egypt.

However, it should be noted that the ETF was not able to provide the evaluation team with the details of human resources and budgets expended for individual projects which undermines the assessment of efficiency.

The value-added of ETF compared to possible alternative options of implementing ETF activities

Value added has been interpreted as the extent to which the setup of ETF as an Agency (specialised expertise, know-how, stakeholder involvement, networks and flexibility) delivering its services and activities benefited the HRD/TVET reform. Simply, to what extent do the stakeholders perceive an added-value of the ETF? To what extent co-funding with other donors brought added-value to the ETF initiatives.

The intended and unintended impact of the ETF role, activities and presence in Egypt

Impact has been interpreted as the positive and negative, primary and secondary long-term effects produced by the intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended. Assessing the extent to which benefits received by direct beneficiaries had a wider overall effect and, on a wider scale, in the sector, the region or the country. It addresses the relationship between the project purpose and the overall objective. Such analysis also takes into consideration that the project is one of a number of influences contributing to the wider outcome.

9 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1. PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION

S1 The aim of the evaluation is to provide ETF with an objective assessment of its activities in terms of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and added value as regards Egyptian system level HRD/TVET reform. The evaluation also pays attention to ETF’s contribution to policy development and the policy learning process.

S2. The evaluation focuses on the period 2000-2007 and the recommendations aim at further improving ETF's current and future contributions in HRD policies in Egypt as well as in North African & Mediterranean countries.

1.2. BACKGROUND OF THE EVALUATION

S3 The draft final report was prepared in accordance with the requirements of Framework Contract CON/06/ETF/0031/32/33, assignment number 5 project number WP07-02 between the Evaluation Partnership and the European Training Foundation. An objective assessment of ETF activities in terms of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, added value, and impact as regards Egyptian system level HRD reform and adoption of education, training and related employment policies was conducted. (The Terms of Reference can be found in Annex 1).

S4 ETF started working in Egypt in 2000 when the ETF carried out a project to identify opportunities within three MEDA countries (Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan) for improving management and entrepreneurial training, Since 2001, ETF has supported the EC through various support actions such as the design and launch of a 33M € MEDA TVET reform programme, the production of a draft Policy Statement for the reform of TVET, an overview on Labour Market Policies in Egypt and the implementation of the ETE regional MED project.

S5 ETF also implemented its own information and analysis, capacity building and networking projects in Egypt such as the setting up and development of a HRD Observatory Function (OF), the ‘Country Analysis 2005’ of Egypt, the ETF initiative on ‘National Qualification Framework’ in Egypt, the ‘Transition from Education to Work’ project, a country report on ‘Career Guidance Policies and Practices in Egypt’, and the 2007 report ‘Migration Patterns & Human Resource Development Issues in Egypt.

1.3. METHODOLOGY

S6. The ET conducted the evaluation in three phases. (1) An inception phase included deskwork and interviews with concerned ETF staff. (2) An implementation phase in which the ET continued deskwork and conducted interviews with the main Egyptian Stakeholders and EC Delegation. (3) An analytical phase in which the ET analysed and synthesised the findings from the deskwork and interviews in the final report.

10 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

S7. The ET collected and analysed documentation and data on ETF activities in Egypt including mission reports, project documents, ETF publications and other relevant documentation. Based upon the analysis, the ET compiled a narrative report of ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/TVET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007 (reproduced as Annex 2).

S8. One visit was made to Turin from 26-27 November 2007 during which ETF staff, who previously dealt or are currently dealing with Egypt, were interviewed. The ET made a short presentation in a workshop to concerned ETF staff on work done and preliminary findings and discussed proposed detailed evaluation questions and checklists to be used when interviewing local stakeholders and EC staff. The list with the main stakeholders within the sector was discussed and agreed with ETF (please see Annex 7).

S9. A series of interviews were conducted from 14-23 January 2008 with most of these stakeholders in Egypt. Before the interviews, questionnaires were sent to the interviewees with the request to return these to the ET; the response rate was 75%. All interviewees have been willing and helpful contributors. It should be noted that the relatively small sample (of respondents to the questionnaire) does not necessarily represent the stakeholders and accordingly the responses to the questionnaire were used as guidelines during the conducted interviews.

S10 The analytical phase of the project consisted of two parts: (1) An overall assessment providing a broader view of the ETF activities in the country and (2) an assessment of individual projects and initiatives in the concerned period. The analysis has given particular attention to the impact of ETF’s role, activities and presence in Egypt.

1.4. SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS

1.4.1 THE INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS

S11. The evaluation dealt with thirteen different accumulated interventions or activities. Each individual project was assessed separately according to the five evaluation criteria. The evaluation was carried out on the basis of: project documentation and materials available, evaluation and monitoring reports, information collected during the interviews with ETF, Egyptian stakeholders and EC Delegation and other background material and publications.

S12. Overall, ETF interventions have been consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements, partners’ needs and priorities and the European Commission policies. Over half (54%) of the respondents thought that ETF activities were very much correct at targeting the requirements of the Egyptian government to assist it in its HRD, TVET and LM related reforms. Meanwhile, the rest of respondents (46%) viewed these activities as somewhat appropriate in this respect. Of the stakeholders, 24% indicated that ETF activities corresponded very much to the needs of their organisation, whereas 62% indicated that ETF activities somewhat corresponded to their needs.

11 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

S13. Of the respondents 52% believed that ETF activities somewhat complemented the work already undertaken by bilateral and international donor community such as the World Bank, while 35% viewed these activities as very much complementary. Meanwhile, none of the respondents (0%) indicated that ETF activities duplicated activities undertaken with other donors in his/her institution.

S14. ETF has focussed on activities which were highly relevant to Egypt: VET reform, guidance & counselling, provision of forums for key stakeholders to gather and share information regularly such as the establishment of the observatory function and national qualification framework, as well as focussing on topics such as skills and migration which is a concern for Egypt and surrounding countries. By focussing on relevant topics of the day, the value of ETF in the eyes of the Egyptian authorities has been enhanced and they have increasingly started to rely on its work.

S15. It was noted that 57% of the respondents indicated that the results of ETF activities contributed very much to the availability and accessibility of relevant information for their organization, and 57% found the various reports on Egypt e.g. on HRD, TVET, LM, produced by ETF very much useful. During the interviews some stakeholders described ETF reports as "descriptive" rather than "analytical". Moreover, some indicated that recommendations of the reports should be more tangible, specific and applicable.

S16. Only a few, of the main stakeholders, referred to the good dissemination of ETF reports and studies. The majority of persons interviewed indicated they were not aware of the availability of ETF studies and report on the internet. In addition, it was requested by almost all the respondents that there is an urgent need to translate ETF reports into Arabic especially those related to Egypt and the region. Also a few of them requested that the reports for the Maghreb region (produced in French) should also be translated to English and Arabic to enable exchange of information and experiences.

S17. Several respondents mentioned that they were not properly consulted during the early stages of some projects’ designs; examples quoted were the ETF 2007 report "Patterns of Migration & Human Resources Development Issues in Egypt" and the study on "Transition from Education to Work". However, for the migration report, it was mentioned, during the interviews, that this report was very beneficial, since it is closely connected to the state's strategy of employment reform and increasing job opportunities based on dovetailing the two major sectors; migration and education. Nevertheless, one of the stakeholders mentioned that neither the aim nor the targeted groups of this project were clearly understood by them in the beginning.

S18. Stakeholders involved in the ETF supported projects or activities improved their level of understanding, expertise and willingness to cooperate because of such involvement. Examples mentioned included implementing a National Qualifications Framework, the Observatory Function, and Career Guidance Policies and Practices. It was noted that the establishment and maintenance of inter-institutional dialogue was very important to have the reform measures endorsed by the decision makers.

12 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

1.4.2. THE OVERALL EVALUATION

S19. The overall conclusion is that the work of the ETF in Egypt has been relevant with respect to the Egyptian TVET reform process, national priorities and EU policies. ETF acted as a link between EU policies and national developments in areas of HRD and in particular TVET with specific projects such as Career Guidance and Counselling, National Qualification Framework and streamlining developments and policies through advice, projects and continuous assistance. ETF covered areas that were not addressed and or for which the right expertise was not available elsewhere.

S20. Overall, ETF can be said to have performed highly satisfactorily in Egypt since its presence in the country. It has focussed on cross cutting themes which matched the needs of the Egyptian authorities and its economic development instead of undertaking a whole array of diverse activities in an ad-hoc and piecemeal manner. The provision of assistance coincided with Egypt’s own attempts to overhaul its TVET system as well as the initiation of a number of projects such as the establishment of the Industrial Training Council and the Egyptian Technical Colleges Programme. The support of ETF was thus timely.

S21. ETF intervention’s objectives supported regional cooperation and establishment of partnerships. Successful examples are the conference on "Innovative Practices in Vocational Education and Training Standards in the Mashreq Region", the Observatory Function Network (OFN), the ‘National Qualification Framework’ and “Career Guidance Policies and Practices in Egypt”. Rather than only transmitting knowledge and expertise, ETF is becoming more and more an organiser and facilitator of policy learning, in line with the proposed ETF recast regulation.

S22 Despite its own limited resources, ETF was able to generate relatively high impact from its interventions by collaborating with other donors, using local and regional expertise, using peer review methodologies and linking its activities to strategic organisations such as the IDSC to host the observatory. ETF has been able to achieve very good coordination with the Italian Cooperation and WB as detailed in the case study (paragraph 4.2.3.).

S23. 50% of respondents believed that ETF very much helped in facilitating exchanging information and experience between Egypt and the EU and Egypt and other MEDA countries. However, there still is need for more international experience and best practices exchange. It was also mentioned that models presented should be better selected in order to be more applicable.

S24. ETF managed in most interventions to successfully involve stakeholders in the design, conceptualisation and implementation of the activities. This contributed to sustainable institutional capacity which enhanced ownership and commitment, better results and acceptance of recommendations at the policy level. Nevertheless, there is a need for stronger support to organise and facilitate policy learning processes in the country. A stronger presence in the country and further capacity building activities are needed to develop the local policy development capacity.

13 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

S25. Raising awareness of ETF activities in Egypt was among the common demands mentioned by the majority of interviewees and this was very much correlated to the request of integrating ETF activities. Several stakeholders suggested that the ETF might have a local office in order to facilitate interacting with the Egyptian HRD/VET community and to have a stronger presence in Egypt

S26. The impact of ETF has included the government looking to the observatory as one of the future key sources of information on the labour market and the introduction of guidance and counselling in technical schools. Given its limited resources, ETF’s impact so far has been highly satisfactory. The IDSC (the OF host) has over the years increased its ownership of the observatory as can be observed by its increasing channelling of funds to the latter for the financing of various activities.

S27. The value addition of ETF has included a forum in the form of the observatory function for the first time in Egypt providing all relevant stakeholders with a place to exchange ideas and information, coordinate their activities as well as raise the profile and visibility of TVET in the country particularly within government, Value addition has also included undertaking studies never attempted in Egypt such as on migration and skills and performing stock taking in critical areas such as qualification systems.

Responses from all stakeholders

14 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

1.4.3. RECOMMENDATIONS

The ET has produced recommendations (as elaborated in section 5 in the main section of the report) on three different levels; on the institutional level, on the level of ETF's strategic partnership with Egypt and on the level of activities. All these recommendation aim at enhancing performance on the five key evaluation criteria that had been applied to the assessment of ETF interventions in Egypt; relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, value added and impact.

At the ETF institutional level

At the ETF institutional level recommendations address external as well as internal issues. On external issues, the ET recommends that the ETF should further strengthen its institutional relation with the European Delegation in Cairo, strengthen collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, create more awareness of ETF's position and credibility as an agency of the European Union and promote ETF as a centre of expertise supporting capacity building and policy learning processes. On internal issues the ET recommends that the ETF uses more rigorous project cycle guidelines based upon the logical framework; procedures for the disbursement of funds should be simplified and the organisation’s information and data system be improved.

At the strategic partnership level

Recommendations at the strategic partnership level include establishing a stronger presence in the country; emphasizing Egypt's ownership of the reform process; facilitating the streamlining of activities in the country; enhancing donor cooperation and coordination; remaining at the forefront of developing innovative activities and methodologies; focussing on capacity building activities; supporting national and regional networking and targeting a broader range of stakeholders in its dissemination activities.

At the level of ETF activities

Finally, at the level of ETF activities recommendations include enhancing stakeholders' ownership and commitment to ETF activities through involving them from the design to finalisation of those activities; securing the sustainability of ETF activities through capacity building and institutional development; exposing stakeholders' to carefully considered regional and international experiences; making clear practical recommendations that help policy development and development of concrete action plans.

15 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1. OVERVIEW OF ETF ACTIVITIES IN EGYPT

S28. Established in Turin, Italy, in 1994, the European Training Foundation (ETF) assists its partner countries in developing high quality systems for human resources development. The ETF’s role is to share expertise and advice on policies in education and training across regions and cultures. Working on behalf of the European Union, the ETF helps its partner countries to support the policy learning process, the development of people’s skills and knowledge to promote better living conditions, active citizenship and democratic societies that respect human rights and cultural diversity.

S29. ETF worked in Egypt from 2000 when it carried out a project to identify opportunities within three MEDA countries (Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan) for improving management and entrepreneurial training, Since 2001, ETF supported the EC through various support actions such as the design and launch of a 33M € MEDA TVET Reform Programme, the production of a draft Policy Statement for the reform of TVET, an overview on Labour Market Policies in Egypt and the implementation of the ETE regional MEDA project.

S30. ETF also implemented some of its own information and analysis, capacity building and networking projects in Egypt such as the setting up and development of a HRD Observatory Function (OF), the ‘Country Analysis 2005’ of Egypt, the ETF initiative on ‘National Qualification Framework’ in Egypt and the country report on ‘Career Guidance Policies and Practices in Egypt’. In addition ETF undertook Innovation and Learning Activities, such as and the ‘Transition from Education to Work’ project and the 2007 report ‘Pattern of Migration & Human Resource Development Issues in Egypt.

S31. The current evaluation covers the period 2000-2007. Within this timeframe, the ETF activities in Egypt can be divided into two periods. A first period runs from mid 2000 to mid 2003, characterised by support to the European Commission (EC) in diverse ways. A second period starts from end of 2005 up to date still characterised by continued support to the EC but combined with bigger number of ETF’s own Work Programme activities more oriented towards policy advice issues.

S32. In practice, ETF provided support in the following three categories of activities:

a) Support to the European Commission

b) Provision of Information & Analysis and Capacity Building

c) Development Projects/Innovation & Learning

S33. Since 2005-2006, the ETF‘s work has shifted more towards policy advice and capacity building. The recast regulation defines the following functions for ETF:

a) Provide information, policy analysis and advice on human resources development issues and their links with sector policy objectives in the partner countries; 16 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

b) Support relevant stakeholders in partner countries to build capacity in human resources development;

c) Facilitate the exchange of information and experience among donors engaged in human resource development reform in partner countries;

d) Support the delivery of Community assistance to partner countries in the field of human resources development;

e) Disseminate information and encourage networking and exchanges of experience and good practice between the European Union and partner countries and amongst partner countries on human resources development issues;

f) At the Commission's request, contribute to the analysis of the overall effectiveness of training assistance to the partner countries;

2.2. THE GENERAL TVET CONTEXT IN EGYPT1

S34. The complexity of the VET system in Egypt results partly from the fact that several ministries and agencies are involved. Though by far not easy to change, this is an issue of institutional organisation inherited from the past system of a centralised economy.

S35. The absence of private-sector involvement accounts for the system’s lack of labour market relevancy, consequently, proposals for a reform of the system - apart from improving quality of delivery so as to increase internal institutional efficiency - focus on rationalising governance and provision with a view to improving external efficiency, on the one hand, and on strengthening private sector involvement to increase relevancy, on the other.

S36. The establishment of the Supreme Council for Human Resource Development in 2000 indicates that there is increased awareness for better co-ordination, although so far the two key Ministries of Education and Higher Education appear to play a minor role in the work of the Council. The further development of the Council into a national tripartite policy formulation body is still at its initial stage and current discussions include a wide variety of future options, ranging from it becoming a basic ministerial policy co-ordination body to a more powerful National Training Authority.

S37. The main complexity of the system relates to the economic structure of the country. The Egyptian economy is composed of different sub-economies: the large monopolistic state- owned enterprises, competitive export-oriented companies (private and public), SMEs catering for local markets, and a large informal sector of small and micro craft and trade

1 Rather than presenting another detailed description, the ET provides in this section some of the main features of the Egyptian TVET system and reform priorities as documented in ILO, Mikhail, Marianick and Watanabi, the ETES report, ETF-WB report reforming Technical Vocational Education and Training in the Middle East and North Africa - experiences and challenges and Country overview on labour market policies in Egypt & ETF Labour market report

17 ETF activities in Egypt placed within the general context of HRD/VET and LM reforms in Egypt during the period 2000-2007

companies. Each of these sub-economies has developed their own particular way of securing the skills and qualifications that they need. All these sub economies are currently undergoing change in response to liberalisation of markets but each is facing different constraints and different opportunities.

S38. A VET reform strategy has to be designed in such a way that it can contribute to private sector development instead of simply relying on it. It also has to be comprehensive and include all existing VET sub-systems instead of counting on the - unrealistic - benefits of a company-based training sub-sector. That leaves a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of education policy analysts and policy makers.

S39. Under the present conditions, it is inevitable that the Government should take the lead. No longer can the Government alone develop education and training policy, nor can that be done at the national level only. Private sector development takes place at the local and regional level; it will be at that level that vocational education and training institutions will have to develop a response. National regulatory frameworks are needed, however, to secure consistent quality standards, nationally and internationally, concerning inputs, processes and desired outputs.

S40. The TVET system’s centralised nature; the inherited involvement of many line ministries with their own supply-driven training infrastructures; low involvement of the private sector in governance, funding and delivery means the institutional framework for vocational training is extremely fragmented and atomised. So far there is not yet in place an effective instrument for coordination, although some of the existing instruments appear reinforced in the new Labour Law. The VET system has, despite a quantitative expansion, become victim of a vicious circle of low quality, low efficiency, low esteem and low relevance of VET, both among parents and among enterprises.

S41. One of the key factors behind this development is the inner drive towards higher education explicitly supported by current education policies. There is a clear tension between labour market and education objectives within many VET institutions; non-integration of academic and vocational subjects and poor integration of theoretical and practical learning.

S42. The VET system has been unable to develop a flexible and high quality response to the different qualification needs (in particular levels 2 and 3) of the various economic sub- sectors or sub-systems needed by a growing private sector for effectively coping with the challenges of international competition on foreign and local markets. Problems include the existence of outdated curricula, teaching methods, textbooks and equipment; academic background of teachers and lack of updated practical work experience of teachers and instructors; an overproduction of higher education graduates who lack practical skills and competencies; a high variation of output and qualification standards and serious gaps between formal and real qualifications.

S43. There is general agreement about the need for substantial reform of the education and training system in view of Egypt's drive to secure sustained economic growth by liberalising the economy and integrating it into regional and global markets. The refor