"Education" participates in the round table to prepare for the establishment of the first sectoral skills council in the tourism sector

The Ministry of Education and Technical Education participated in a joint round table session to launch the initiative to establish the first Sector Skills Council in the tourism sector in Egypt.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Muhammad Mujahid, Deputy Minister of Education for Technical Education Affairs, who explained during his opening speech the efforts of the Ministry of Education to reform the technical education system through five pillars, the most important of which is the strong partnership with the private sector.

He explained that the ministry plans to transform a number of commercial education schools into technical schools for tourism and hotel education to better serve the tourism sector, and mentioned that in cooperation with the German government, the ministry is establishing a center of excellence in the tourism sector to be a beacon of development for other schools.

He also expressed his happiness with the establishment of the Tourism Sector Skills Council at the appropriate time to direct the ministry in order to provide qualified graduates to work in this sector.

Dr. Hanan Nazir, Head of the Labor Market Policies Unit at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, explained the ministry’s efforts to issue the legal and financial framework for establishing and operating sectoral skills councils through an umbrella umbrella that organizes the work of all sectoral skills councils, in cooperation with the USAID Egypt Labor Force Project. Noting that the establishment of sectoral skills councils is a key measure within the second phase of the government's priority structural reforms program for the Egyptian economy.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Soha Bahgat, Advisor to the Minister of Tourism for Capacity Building, Mr. Ahmed Al-Wasif, President of the Egyptian Federation of Tourism Chambers, and Dr. Heike Harmgart, Regional Executive Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the presence of a number of international development partners such as the Swiss Cooperation Office and the European Training Foundation The United States Agency for International Development, and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GiZ).

The meeting coincided with the ratification of Law No. 160 of 2022 by His Excellency the President of the Republic to establish the Egyptian Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Technical Education and Vocational Training (Itqan), which stipulates the role of sectoral skills councils in conducting quality audits for providers of technical and technical education and vocational training services.