The Minister of Higher Education receives a report on the activities of a workshop to study the situation of Egyptian university graduates in the labor market

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, received a report submitted by Dr. Mohamed Ayman Ashour, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research for Universities Affairs, about the workshop for the launch of the report on the national survey of the status of Egyptian university graduates in the labor market, in the presence of Dr. Hesham Farouk, Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation, on behalf of Dr. Ayman Ashour, as part of the project to establish university centers for professional development.

The report stated that the project is funded by the US Agency for International Development and managed by the American University in Cairo, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization and in partnership with the Observatory of Higher Education and the Labor Market of the Ministry of Higher Education. Special needs, support, collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative and qualitative information about the labor market, of graduates of higher education, related to career guidance and counselling; Where 18 professional development centers were established in 11 public universities, namely (Ain Shams, Alexandria, Mansoura, Menoufia, Sadat City, Zagazig, Aswan, Beni Suef, Minya, Sohag, Tanta).

On his part, Dr. Hesham Farouk said that the ministry is keen to support an integrated system represented in all institutions that aim to ensure the creation of job opportunities for graduates of Egyptian universities, praising the role played by the Higher Education and Labor Market Observatory, in cooperation with the American University and the International Labor Organization, in implementing projects on conducting labor market studies. and vocational training to keep pace with the needs of the labor market, stressing the full support of this project because of its great impact in achieving integration between the outputs of higher education and the labor market.

Eric Ochlan, Director of the ILO office in Cairo, explained that the organization is keen, through the Professional Development Centers project, to bring about change in the labor market, by promoting better use of labor market information in Egypt, and helping to reduce the gap between the supply and demand sides, noting that this study is being implemented for the first time in Egypt as the first national analysis of the early results of the labor market, and it is related to university graduates in Egypt.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Sayed Al-Asbah, Head of the Strategic Planning Unit and the Labor Market Information Observatory, at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, gave a presentation on the features of cooperation between the Higher Education Observatory and the International Labor Organization, stressing the ministry’s keenness to prepare a sustainable information system for the labor market, to ensure the tracking of work status among education graduates. Higher education, supply and demand studies, and future labor market studies, to support the development of admission and economic policies and the need to work on linking the university with industry and businessmen.

In a related context, Maha Fakhry, Executive Director of the project at the American University in Cairo, confirmed that the past four years have witnessed tangible developments and efforts by workers in professional development centers and the International Labor Organization, praising the great efforts made by officials of the Ministry of Higher Education to contribute to the issuance of these studies, and to provide support and promote Fruitful cooperation with the Education Observatory.

While Dr. Heba Rashid, the national project coordinator at the International Labor Organization, reviewed the most important activities undertaken to launch these studies, through cooperation with the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research "Baseera", and Dr. Rania Rushdi, Dr. Irene Silvans, and Mona Amer, economic advisors in the field of work.

A number of representatives of the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Planning and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, a number of representatives of the World Bank and university centers, and many partners in the field of education and work participated in this workshop.