Career Guidance

ILO introduces career guidance training for Arabic speakers

ILO provides strategic tools for planners and decision makers from Egypt for career guidance policies and practices.

Press release | 26 January 2018
Cairo (ILO News)– The International Labour Organization (ILO)'s Decent Jobs for Egypt`s Young People (DJEP) project in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC-ILO) and European Training Foundation (ETF) as well as in partnership with GIZ/EPP,Technical and Vocational Training Reform Program phase II (EU/TVET II) and Workforce Improvement And Skills Enhancement USAID/WISE, has organized a joint training and knowledge-sharing course on career guidance policies and practices: A strategic tool for planners and decision makers in Egypt from 21- 25 January 2018 in Fayoum governorate.

The closing ceremony has been attended by Dr. Hossam Badrawi Honorary Chairman of the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC), Ms. Nanis Al Nakory, General Manager of Youth Projects Department, Ministry of Youth & Sports, Eng. Ahmed El Ghamazi, Head of Productivity and Vocational Training Department of Ministry of Trade & Industry, Mr. Waleed Imam, Director of Manpower Directorate of Ministry of Manpower, as well as Ms. Solveig Shuster, Counsellor and Head of Cooperation at Global Affairs Canada, and Ms. Eman Omran, Small and Medium Enterprises Programme Team Leader from Global Affairs Canada.

We are pleased to see the number of partners here who are working together including the governmental institutions and donors entities. This collaboration always leads to better results.."

Ms. Solveig Schuster,Counsellor & Head of Cooperation at Global Affairs Canada
“Career Guidance contributes to achieve social equity goals, to increase gender equity and to support the participation of young people in the labour market. This course is a knowledge product for the ILO. And Canada is very pleased to be partner with the ILO through its project Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People since 2011,” stated Ms. Solveig Schuster, Counsellor and Head of Cooperation at Global Affairs Canada.

Promote career guidance in Egypt

Since career guidance is only partly covered either by national or international organizations and professional associations in the field it still represents a niche. “As a Ministry, we hope to be able to start activating this system. The Ministry can provide support by allowing all youth centres to act upon the recommendations made by the working groups of the training course,” affirmed Prof. Nanis Al Nakoury, General Manager of Youth Projects Department, Ministry of Youth & Sports.

Establishing a comprehensive national institutional system that integrates all stakeholders and provides the necessary tools and information to enable individuals of all ages to make sound decisions about educational opportunities, training, employment and career management is key to further promote Career Guidance in Egypt. Hence, productivity and competitiveness of the country in general can be enhanced.

“We want to create a civil mechanism to monitor the implementation of the vision ‘Egypt 2030’. Legislation and laws do not always lead to something. It needs a change of culture,” said Dr. Hossam Badrawi, Honorary Chairman of the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC). “Career Guidance is a culture that needs education and information. There must be an umbrella that represents a synthesis of the ideas of all parties in order to turn them into reality.”

Career Guidance Training Course

The structure of the course has been based on five modules, each covering different topics such as: concepts and realities for career guidance, individual career guidance engagement versus state provisions, labour market and career information, leadership, coordination and cooperation of all stakeholders and action plans to promote and improve career guidance policy in Egypt.

Hence, the outcome of the training enabled attendees to be more knowledgeable when it comes to actions like planning for the establishment or improvement of career guidance services in different settings, shaping planned career guidance services to the range of contextual cultural and social factors or preparing training of career guidance staff and practitioners based on international standards.

Around 25 people attended the course from the Ministries of Education, Youth & Sports, Trade & Industry, Manpower, parliamentarians, counsellors at national, regional and local/governmental levels, leaders in guidance professional societies, staff of public and private employment services, job centres, schools, vocational training centres and other institutions working in the area of career guidance.

This course gave an insight into policies and strategies to find a way to make career guidance possible for all Egyptians. A road map has been drafted to show how career guidance can become a reality in Egypt and who can volunteer as part of a task-force organized for this purpose to oversee its institutionalization within the national framework. It includes action plans such as: increasing individual job satisfaction, reducing turnover of human resources, discover and steer hidden potentials of employees, reducing unemployment rates, qualifying professionals with appropriate skills for the labour market and increasing social stability.