FILE- Minister of Planning Hala El-Said
CAIRO - 9 December 2021: Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala El-Said, participated on Tuesday in the World Forum for Higher Education and the General Conference of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO, under the patronage of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
During her speech, Hala El-Said said that the issue of (Future Jobs Challenges from a Global Perspective) is one of the most important development issues, as labor markets are witnessing a major turning point.
Concerning the impact of technological changes and developments on the labor market and the required skills, El-Said explained that the rapid technological developments have greatly affected the production process, the structure of the labor market itself, and the specializations required in the labor market.
El-Said added that the labor market required skills have changed as future jobs require new skills, including artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and robotics, in addition to other behavioral skills related to leadership, critical analysis, and space science skills.
El-Said referred to the report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which indicated that based on the automation process that is taking place, 14% of jobs are at risk, and 32% of jobs need to intensify efforts to change skills to be able to keep pace with the new labor market.
"So the main issue is to reduce the gap between the requirements of the labor market, which has become highly developed, and the skills offered," El-Said explained.
El-Said noted that in the absence of skills development, there will be a large gap between the skills of graduates, whose number ranges from 800,000 to 900,000 annually, and the requirements of the labor market.
El-Said added that the Egyptian economy enjoys a great demographic advantage, as the youth sector from 15 to 29 years represents a large proportion of the population.
On the Egyptian state’s efforts to confront developments and challenges that affect the labor market, El-Said explained that the state’s efforts are divided into five main pillars.
About availability, El-Said indicated that there is an increase in investments by 100% annually in universities at the level of the Egyptian state to provide places for future generations in those universities.
El-Said also clarified that the second pillar is quality, referring to the partnerships that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has established with a large number of the best international educational institutions.
El-Said continued that in the field of education as well, there was a directive to invest in the information infrastructure in Egyptian universities; to develop the educational system in universities, in addition to the new specializations, which are the interdisciplinary specializations between the different faculties.
El-Said also referred to the second pillar, which is technical education, explaining that this system has suffered in Egypt over the years.
El-Said stressed that the structural reforms plan to focus on the labor market, as Egypt is a country with a large population; however, it has a demographic advantage, so it was important to pay attention to the technical education system, which is being restructured today under one structure to ensure the quality of technical education under a special body.
El-Said said that for the first time in Egypt, there will be sectorial skills and councils that supervise the skills required in each sector, to ensure that graduates are suitable for the labor market.
El-Said added that within the framework of the technical education system; Schools are linked to national projects, noting that some applied schools in industrial zones are linked with the Ministry of Industry.
El-Said stressed that all these efforts changed the mental and societal image of the technical education system, pointing to another system, which is an academy for teachers and technical education that the Ministry of Education and Technical Education is working on, stressing that the teacher is the basis of the educational process.
On the third pillar, which is investing in behavioral and leadership skills, El-Said referred to the President’s launch of the National Academy for Training and Rehabilitating Young People in Leadership, which provides a large number of leaders who are trained in many skills for long periods to ensure that they have the leadership skills to lead various institutions.
El-Said added that many skills are carried out at the National Youth Training Academy, where young people receive skills programs for critical analysis and creative thinking, explaining that by training and empowering young people, a large number of them have become assistant ministers and governors.
On the fourth axis related to enhancing digital skills, El-Said explained that future jobs require a very high number of digital and technological skills, which requires the state to invest in this type of program.
El-Said pointed out that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has implemented a wide range of programs for Egypt's digital builders, which are given master's degrees in many disciplines required in the future, such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
El-Said also referred to the (Our Digital Future initiative) for short-term training in digital skills, adding that the state has also established the Knowledge City in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) to become a regional center for creativity and innovation specialized in all advanced technologies in artificial intelligence and the Internet.
Concerning the fifth pillar related to entrepreneurship, El-Said stressed the importance of this pillar with the volume of graduates from the labor market, explaining that investment is made in the demographic advantage so that graduates do not look for jobs, they create jobs for themselves and their colleagues.
El-Said emphasized the state's investment in entrepreneurship programs, referring to the Rowad (Pioneers) 2030 project at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, where more than 460,000 students in schools were trained on entrepreneurship.
El-Said also addressed the discussion about the Egypt Award for Governmental Applications under the patronage of the President of the Republic, explaining that all these ideas and initiatives aim to create more job opportunities to benefit from the human wealth and the large human capital that exists in Egypt.
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