Colleges and Institutes Canada

Published purpose

This project aims to improve the employability of young women and men in the agribusiness sector by increasing their capacity to gain industry-relevant and climate-smart skills in 3 governorates in Lower Egypt: Beheira, Gharbia, and Beni Suef. The project supports the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE), the Ministry of the Environment, the National Council for Women (NCW) to implement Egypt’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) strategy. The project also seeks to increase the inclusiveness and resilience of the agri-business sector, particularly for women and rural youth. Project activities include: (1) conducting a gender-sensitive analysis of the labour market and existing competency standards to identify climate-smart agribusiness subsectors for training programs; (2) establishing Egypt’s first Agribusiness Centre of Competence (CoC), which seeks to serve a network of 10 agricultural technical schools; (3) developing a new gender-responsive and competency-based curriculum that can respond to skill gaps in the labour market and improve employment and self-employment pathways for youths; (4) providing gender training to students, institutional staff, and industry representative to reduce barriers preventing women from pursuing TVET and employment opportunities; (5) providing capacity building services to technical schools personnel and instructors; (6) creating industry advisory committees, and youth and community committees to increase linkages between technical schools and private sector actors; (7) raising awareness within project communities on the advantages and opportunities of TVET and employment, especially for women; (8) providing training to industry, community, and government officials to enhance the image of technical education; and (9) fostering internship and learning opportunities for students in agri-business enterprises. The project expects to benefit about 24,000 students directly, of whom nearly 5,000 will be women, as well as 249 lecturers, 145 administrator, 20 student managers, 20 MoETE officials and 100 industry representatives. The project expects to indirectly benefit 30,000 individuals.