The CIEH is the UK’s leading awarding body for vocational qualifications in accredited food safety, and health and safety training. As an awarding body, the CIEH issues around 600,000 qualifications annually to people who successfully pass its exams.
This extensive vocational qualifications experience was recently made use of by the UK Governments’ UK Trade and Investment department when the CIEH was asked to take part in a study of further education in Egypt.
High unemployment and unfilled jobs
Egypt's economy is undergoing extensive reform efforts and with a stable, secular political environment, prospects for the future are brighter. Economic growth has been around 7% for the past few years, making Egypt an attractive market for investors.
However, Egyptian and foreign companies report difficulties in recruiting sufficiently skilled labour across many sectors, despite extensive youth and graduate unemployment. The food industry is one of the sectors affected by the skills shortage and has been identified by the Egyptian government as a priority area for technical vocational education and training (TVET) reform in line with market demands.
UK Government pitches in
UK companies have a strong interest and are well placed to make a significant contribution to the Egyptian skills agenda. The British Council is about to embark on a major Skills for Employability programme in the Middle East/North Africa region, which will naturally include Egypt - by far the most populous country in the Middle East (a youthful and fast growing population, currently 78.7 million).
. . and the CIEH plays its part
David Denton, CIEH Business Development Director, was part of a mission organised by the UK Trade and Investment’s TVET UK group to investigate how the UK can contribute to the Egyptian government’s vocational education reform programme. The mission involved visits to a wide range of government and non-government organisations, training institutions, employers organisations and factories around Cairo and Alexandria.
The mission found widespread interest in partnering with British organisations to deliver vocational education and training.
A report will be presented by TVET UK at a forthcoming conference organised by the Middle East Association, and the CIEH looks forward to making its contribution to food safety vocational training in Egypt.
