Egypt is currently facing a transition phase. In 5 years, Egypt witnessed two revolutions. One of them was a reaction to socioeconomic injustice, youth unemployment, and more other issues. Unemployment, Economic Performance, and Education are interlinked with each other.
Humans are considered as one of the most precious assets for any country; they are the creators of development and civilization. They must be skilled and qualified enough to hold this ultimate responsibility. With a population, reaching 90M, the Government of Egypt faces significant challenges. The economic growth must be stimulated to absorb more than 0.85M job seekers every year.
Education is a tool for dealing with these issues especially unemployment and even some social problems as it is one of the main tools for qualifying the labor force with the required skills for the labor market in order to create a prosperous society.
The Planning for the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is of a great importance to ensure that the manpower is effectively utilized; the Egyptian educational system graduates mostly do not have the required skills needed for the labor market, which creates a situation of mismatching between what is required and what is offered leading to the unemployment of those graduates.
The research will answer the question of “How far the Technical education will support the development plan of Egypt in its new era?”
Statement of the problem
“There is a paradox in the current educational system in Egypt: high expenditures with low returns, excess demand with oversupply, and unemployment of the educated labor, under supply of technical labor” (El- Hamidi, March 2009). The current education system is deemed as inefficient, as the educational system in Egypt is not able to provide the economic sectors with the required labor and qualifications, which created the under supply in the labor market, and in the meantime high unemployment. This weird situation of the Egyptian labor market affected the competitiveness of the Egyptian industry and also the Egyptian economic performance. To overcome this mismatch, strategic plans for the TVET need to be developed with the participation of all stakeholders to link the education system with the labor market. They must be developed on the bases of the nature of the mismatch and the labor market requirements and the education mechanism.
That is why the major research problem can be stated as “The impact of Technical Education Planning and its effectiveness on the labor market in Egypt”
This question can be formulated as.
Q1. How far the Technical education is able to respond to the Labor market demands?
Q1.1 How far the Technical education is able to respond to the Labor market required qualifications?
Q1.2 How far the Technical education is able to respond to the Labor market required quantities?
1.2. Research objectives
The main objective of the study is to investigate the Egyptian Technical Education system (under the ministry of Education) effectiveness; the availability of policies, strategies, plans and its impact on the labor market.
Research objectives:
O1. To investigate how far the Technical education is able to respond to the Labor market demands
O1.1 To investigate how far the Technical education is able to respond to the Labor market required qualifications?
O1.2 investigate how far the Technical education is able to respond to the Labor market required quantities?
1.3. Hypothesis
H1 Technical Education planning has a significant impact on labor market
H1.1 Technical Education planning has a significant impact on labor market required qualifications
H1.2 Technical Education planning has a significant impact on labor market required quantities
1.4. Variables
The planning effectiveness indicators for the technical education is:
• Responding to the labor market needs
o Required qualifications (Specializations, skills)
o Required Quantities
• Employers in the labor market consider the Technical Education a main source of qualified labor
Figure 1. 1 Demand and Supply
The required impact of technical education planning on the labor market
• Qualified labor available in the labor market (qualification & skills)
• Unemployment decrease (employees according to the labor market requirements)
From the matching between demand and supply, the Technical Education planning effectiveness can be assessed; How far is the Technical Education (supply) responding to the labor market needs (demand)
Accordingly, the variables can be formulated as:
i. Labor market demand (Independent variable): is defined as the number of workers required in the labor market according to specific qualifications.
ii. Labor market supply (Dependent variable): is defined as the number of workers willing and able to work in the labor market
1.5. Significance of the study
The significance of the research issue increased as a result of the latest political turbulence and unrest. The needs to reduce the rate of unemployment, reduce the social gap between societal classes, and enhance the performance of the economic sectors became even more urgent after the revolution. Hence, looking at TVET more closely in light of recent political, social and economic changes became of a great importance.
According to the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) for 2016-2017 results; Egypt became the country number 115 instead of 94 in 2011-2012, according to this index Egypt was ranked number 135 out of 138 with a score of 3.2 out of 7 in the labor market efficiency.
While regarding higher education (Technical secondary education was assessed as part of the higher education), Egypt ranked number 135 from 138 countries with a rate of 2.1 out of 7, quality of school management Egypt was 138 out of 138 countries with a rate of 2.5 out of 7, and in the local availability of specialized training services Egypt was ranked number 136 out of 138 with a rate of 2.7 out of 7. These data indicate that Egypt has a severe problem in the educational and training systems in addition to the effectiveness of the labor market.
Due to the TVET importance in developing the Egyptian human capital to leverage the economic sectors competitiveness, which affect the country competitiveness and according to the GCI results, a big question mark about the TVET effectiveness need to be answered and this is where the significance of this study comes from.
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
Humans are the most precious asset for any nation; they are the inventers of civilization and prosperity. But humans must be sufficiently capable and efficient; they must be skilled and qualified enough for this role. No nation will be qualified for superiority without a high-quality education that produces adequate and skillful manpower that guides the nation to development and wealth. Hence, education is important to lead to high economic performance, as well as the prosperity of the society (Badawy, 2011).
As per El-Hamidi (2005), it is undoubtedly that qualified technicians and skillful labor force is important for sustainable industrial development, and a main indicator of a nation’s global competitiveness in a global economy characterized by rapid change. The competitive advantage
s of a nation and its potential for transformation are directly linked to the mass of accumulated human capital. People, with their education, knowledge expertise, and qualifications, determine the opportunities for economic growth.
Nowadays, Governments around the world are alerted by the importance of skill improvement, skill deficiency, and skills’ mismatches. Many governments are in a race to improve their manpower skills as they are observed as integral component to competitiveness, effectiveness, efficiency and even modernization. Skills are also essential for social engagement as those without skills are excluded from labor market and disregarded from work. Though, the fact that there is common agreement that skills are important, there is ambiguity on the nature of those skills, the kinds of skills the society needs and how they should be developed, acquired and maintained (Wheelahan, 2011).
Skills and knowledge are the locomotives of economic development and social development of any nation (Goel, 2010), and TVET holds a main responsibility to qualify on those skills which are needed for the changing technological environment (Afeti, 2010). TVET is used as a comprehensive term to those aspects of the educational process and building capacities, it is “the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skill, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life” (UNESCO, 2002). In other words, we can say that “TVET is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work to increase opportunities for productive empowerment and socio-economic development in knowledge economics and rapidly changing work environment” (Mclean and David, 2009). Thus, TVET equips people with technical and vocational skills in addition to a broad range of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are recognized as crucial for the participation in labor market and even life.
TVET has various goals which differ from a country to another. In Egypt, the main player in TVET in the formal education system is the Technical Education under the Ministry of Education, incorporated in the third level of education (secondary education; secondary general and secondary Technical) in addition to the informal system represented in training institutions; most of them are public organizations. This system aims to meet the country’s need for skilled labor and support the economy.
TVET is increasingly recognized as the base of development, therefore it is crucial to achieve the national goals for TVET which will lead to the creation of qualitative human capital required for sustainable development.
The importance of this topic increased significantly in Egypt currently due to the economic reform. The need to invest in the right track increased especially after a severe decline in the Egyptian economy in the last decade. A high demand to decrease the rate of unemployment, to narrow the social gap between societal classes, increase labor contribution, and enhance the overall performance of the economic sectors has increased. Therefore, TVET became more important issue, especially that a research gap in that matter is apparent.
2.2. Human Capital
Human capital is considered as a main component affecting the economic performance. The rise of human capital concepts started in 1776 when Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations. later on, his ideas were formulated into the concepts of human capital (Fitzsimons, 1999).
“Human capital is the knowledge and skills that people acquire through education and training as being a form of capital and this capital is a product of a planned investment that yields returns” (Nafukho, Hairston & Brooks, 2004). This means that human capital must be developed to act effectively in order to support the accomplishment of the economic goals. Improving human capital can be done through acquiring knowledge from formal education, Training programs, and other informal methods. That is why the education is an essential element in the development of the human capital. Education and training is counted as an investment in the human capital, the return of this investment appears on the economic performance. Sweetland pointed out that “The analysis of training and development as investments in human capital was pioneered through the works of leading economic scholars” (Zula, 2007). “Scholars ventured away from the four main factors of the aggregate production model of physical capital, labor, land, and management instead to focus their attention on a residual factor called human capital. These four main factors of production—called the economy growth accounting equations” (Nafukho, Hairston & Brooks, 2004).
The investments in the human capital is a main contributor to the economic growth. Becker’s defines the theory of human capital “as a form of investment by individuals in education up to the point where the returns in extra income are equal to the costs of participating in education. Returns are both private to the individual in the form of additional income and to the whole society in the form of greater productivity provided by the educated” (Nafukho, Hairston & Brooks, 2004); education and training are the most vital investments in human capital. The income of the more educated and trained labor is almost higher than the less ones.
The structure and methods of the global economy have developed significantly during the past decades. The human element has become more and more vital at all stages of economic production, this includes services as well as manufacturing, and this is applicable in the different stages of development. The competitiveness of economic sectors and enterprises is significantly dependent on the skills and competences of their labor and managers to create competitive advantages, at all levels of the value chain.
Developing the appropriate human capital is the main challenge for enhancing competitiveness. Higher productivity can be achieved by investing in human as well as physical assets, through the efficient interaction of these resources productivity can be increased (total factor productivity).
Countries will develop or integrate new technology in their economic sectors according to the human capital development level; this can be achieved if and only if the required human capital is available. These capabilities should be targeting specific sectors rather than the whole economic sectors (e.g. India and the information and communication technology (ICT) sector).
However, less developed countries acquire technology from other countries, primarily through foreign investment from developed countries. The transfer of technology requires enhancing the technical capabilities of the involved labor (e.g. using high tech equipment or machinery). The level of education and training required for this labor (technical and managerial) depends on the standard of technology involved.
Technology transfer also depends on the technology level already exists in the country, which requires adequate educational levels to efficiently use this technology. In all cases, investment in new technology requires suitable manpower.
Developing adequate human capital to meet the requirements of various economic sectors is not a process of matching the national TVET system with comparable developed countries. TVET reform must be designed on analysis of the country’s economic and social environment. Many countries in their reform process use several approaches to develop competitive economies, countries as South Korea, Singapore, China launched comprehensive education reforms depending on a solid foundation of human capital that contributed to economic competitiveness. Most developed countries applied these reforms at a slower rate because of economic and po
litical constraints. The focus of these countries was on developing some specific sectors with exact competitive advantages. Egypt’s economy has the advantage that some economic sectors are developed and have already achieved some competitive advantages or are in the process of developing their competitive advantages. The Egyptian ICT sector is a true example as it developed a strong competitive position not only on the national level but also on the international level. Also, there are other sectors need to strengthen their competitiveness such as the tourism sector; one of the major areas that need for enhancement is the human resources, as the human factor is an essential component in the service quality. Egypt needs new policies and strategies that ensure the development of human capital according to the economic development requirements.
Methods of developing the Human Capital
There are three types for developing human capital, Becker specified them as investments in human capital (Zula, 2007).
These three types are:
1. Education: is the process of facilitating learning for acquiring knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits to prepare youth for work or their mature life.
2. On-the-job training: “learning new skills and perfecting old ones while on the job”, in other words, it is learning through practicing. It is broken down into two types of training;
o General training: developing skills that are general and can be used in many companies
o Specific training: developing skills that are specific for certain jobs or companies only
3. Other knowledge / methods: any other methods used to increase knowledge or develop skills, as self-learning methods.
All these kinds of Education and training are important for the development of the human capital; their importance differs according to the required skills; taking into consideration that general education and training is useful for developing basic skills for elementary levels, while specific education and training is used for more advanced levels of skills where higher performance is required. Specialized training generates benefits for company through increasing productivity and generating better earnings for the worker. During recession times, workers with high skills are the last to be laid off. “Human capital theory suggests that education, training, and development, and other knowledge have a positive impact on productivity and wages” (Zula, 2007). It also mentions that “individuals and society derive economic benefits from investments in people” (Zula, 2007). This theory developed a paradigm for studying the return on education and the return on investment for schooling, on-the-job training, and other knowledge gaining methods. It became so obvious that developing human capital must include providing education and training.
The human capital theory expresses that investing in education, on-the-job training and development, and other knowledge has a significant impact on productivity and income. There are numerous approaches to develop human capital, which range is from formal education to on-the-job training or companies offers training (Machin & Vignoles, 2004).
Figure 2. 1 Model of Human Capital Theory and the Associated Investments or Inputs and the Associated Return on Investment or Outputs (Zula, 2007).
According to figure 3.1 the human capital theory states that “investment in human capital in the form of education and training develops the human capital leading to a higher productivity which will have a positive impact on profits and their wages. All this will enhance the economic performance which is considered as the return on investment from education and training” (Zula, 2007).
Investing on the human capital has a significant impact on the economic performance. To accomplish the desired goals there must be a plan for the required actions to reach the desired goals.
2.3. Human Resource Planning (HRP)
“HRP is an integration of all HR activities with overall strategic plans. HRP also involves the coordination of hiring, promotion, training, and other diverse activities” (Rothwell, & Sredl, 2000). Human Resource Planning is concerned with developing Human Resources using strategic plans to serve the overall strategies and to create long-term commitment and guidance, and to develop and use the intellectual capital and knowledge assets.
Strategic Human Resource Planning is a long-term plan which supports the overall strategy. “Rothwell and Sredl developed a model for human resource planning to combine and integrate the Human Resource Planning and strategic planning; studying of the future Human Resource demands and supplies; analysis of the environmental changes that will affect the human resource supply chain; comparison of human resource demands and the estimated supplies; action to match human resource demand with the supplies; and assessment of the plans and results” (Rothwell, & Sredl, 2000). This human resource Planning concept indicates that one of the human resource practitioners’ essential functions is to narrow the gaps between present human capital supply and the expected demand.
“Human capital planning considered to be a key to strategic success following the change in the economy as the workforce requires more skill, as well as technology-based skills. These changes have led to an increasing need for human capital planning and measurements to determine their usefulness” (Zula, 2007).
2.4. Economic Growth and Human Development
Economic growth is essential for the reduction of poverty and unemployment. Nevertheless, economic growth does not automatically lead to poverty alleviation. It’s contribution to poverty alleviation through the creation of jobs with decent wage (BMZ, 2005), “It is sufficiently established that the distribution of income in an economy is strongly related to the amount of education people have accumulated” (El-Hamidi, March 2009). “The existing literature suggests the presence of a two-way relationship between Economic Growth and Human Development, implying that nations may enter either into a virtuous cycle of high growth and large Human Development gains, or a vicious cycle of low growth and low Human Development improvement” (Ranis, 2004). Higher levels of Human Development can lead to positive impact on Economic Growth (Costantini & Salvatore, 2008). “It has been observed that India displays a two-way causality between Economic Growth and Human Development, indicating possibilities of vicious cycles” (Ghosh, 2006). In other words, when the higher education and skills exist, the higher income is expected.
Economic development cannot occur without the development of human capital. Although the development of human capital through TVET does not guaranty the economic development, but its contribution is crucial. In fact, research results demonstrated a relationship between the education system and a country’s economic success (Lipsmeier et al., 2003); this is clear in the developed countries, as they have highly developed TVET systems, The developed countries are investing more in TVET than the developing countries, ‘the greater a country’s Gross Domestic Product per capita, the greater its secondary Percentage of Technical/Vocational Enrolment’ (UIS, 2006), as human capital is strongly affected by the change in technology; higher technologies require higher skill and highly educated labor . This means that the TVET system must cope the change in technology, which requires continuous investment and development.
World Bank highlights that “investing in manpower can improve development” (W.B. Development Report 2007). Another related study, The Knowledge Economy and Education and Training in South Asia (Riboud, Savchenko, and Tan 200
7) demonstrated how skills affect labor market outcomes, and the importance of skills upgrading. Another report on Linking Education Policy to Labor Market Outcomes, indicated that the expansion of vocational education only will not increase earnings significantly and has not proven actual poverty reduction. While the quality of vocational education is strongly linked to earnings and income generation (Fasih 2008); All countries face the challenge of improving the capacity of their manpower to support their national development needs, and to compete in the globally competitive world. The future success of countries, enterprises and communities significantly depends on modern, transferable and renewable skills and knowledge. The importance of TVET comes from its role in equipping individuals with relevant skills and knowledge, which enables the manpower to effectively participate in the development of their nations.
TVET is considered as a tool to create new employment opportunities and income generating activities. In addition to its significant role in the economic development and poverty alleviation if it is tailored to local resources and needs.
TVET can support the international competitiveness; technological changes are extremely fast which increase the gap in knowledge and advanced technologies between developed and developing countries. The combination between transfer of knowledge and technology through TVET and creativity skills raises the innovation capabilities of developing countries. Without such mechanism, the development gap will decrease the competitiveness of developing countries in the global economy.
Egypt has started major reform programs to improve its economic development and competitiveness. Nevertheless, despite the ongoing reforms to the TVET system yet it needs to adapt to Egypt’s new economic challenges. This reform process will require more efforts and time to reach its goals. That is why, the focus on priority sectors is essential to support economic growth (ETF 2011).
2.5. The increasing importance of human capital in Egypt
“The continuing removal of trade barriers and tariffs, the consequent liberalization of markets, the volatility of consumer demand within existing markets, currency fluctuations and political upheaval are by now familiar characteristics of an environment where all is unstable” (Garavan, Costine, & Heraty, 1995). In addition to the political and economic circumstances which increased the urge of the developed countries to move their manufacturing facilities to cheaper labor countries, to enable them to produce less cost products. “The capability of people to cope and manage within such an environment is a vital element in the success of any business and ultimately a determinant in national economic performance” (Garavan, Costine, & Heraty, 1995). Accordingly, this means that the countries with cheaper qualified labor, suitable economic conditions, ability to deal with environmental changes, in addition to suitable regulations will attract foreign investment, in order to produce higher quality products with competitive prices, this led the developed countries to support the developing countries to develop their manpower and even build their capabilities according to the developed countries standards.
For countries to increase their competitive capabilities, and to stay competitive; they should improve their labor productivity to decrease their unit labor cost. That is why the role of a flexible and competitive labor market is vital for more market forces oriented economy. (El-Ehwany & Metwally, Working Paper 0129)
Due to ” geographical position, human capital, availability of resources, and political stability, Egypt is targeted from the European courtiers to supply cheap price products with a good quality” (Evans-Klock & Lin, 1998). This clarifies why the European countries offer a lot of funds to support the developing programs of the Egyptian economy especially in the field of creating qualified human resources. Also for these reasons the government of Egypt has a great potential to attract foreign investment, but at the same time, faces big challenges to meet the European countries developing standards for attracting their investments. “The shortage in qualified manpower due to the weakness, ineffectiveness and undeveloped training and education system has an inverse impact on the industrial development” (Schuber, 2007a). This means that the TVET system in Egypt must be developed and modernized to generate manpower according to an international standard.
The Egyptian government developed many projects with foreign donors to overcome those problems, such as the Enhancement to the Egyptian Dual system (EEDS) with Germany, TVET Reform II with the European Union, WISE with the USAID, Employment Promotion program (EPP) with the Germans, Industrial Modernization Centre (IMC) with fund from the European Union, Industrial Training Council (ITC).
All these projects aimed to develop the Egyptian human capital. However, “the Egyptian government and the private sector should create a mechanism for developing and qualifying the Egyptian labor” (Schuber, 2007b) to help the Egyptian economy to attract foreign investments. A good example for this is the Asian tigers, they used the qualified cheap labor as a tool to attract foreign investments to develop their economy (Mühlemeyer & Clarke, 1997). The education system must work according to a national strategic human resource plan and the economic development plan.
2.6. Education planning
Prior to World War 2, educational systems were less complex in structure and content, smaller in size and less intricately tied to the total life of nations. Moreover, the world was growing and changing at a considerably slower pace that enables the education institutions to cope with. But even in these simpler times there was some sort of planning. This is no longer the case. The world is changing rapidly and dramatically, these changes required a more complicated educational system and more advanced education planning methods.
“Educational planning, in its broadest generic sense, is the application of rational, systematic analysis to the process of educational development with the aim of making education more effective and efficient in responding to the needs and goals of its students and society” (P.H. Coombs, 1970). It differs according to the level of development, governance system, resources available, others. Educational planning deals with the future, based on the past. It is the foundation for future decisions and actions, but it is more than a blueprint. Planning is a continuous process, concerned not only with where to go but with how to get there and which methods to use. Planning does not end when a plan get approval. Effective planning is concerned with the implementation process, with unexpected obstacles that arise and with how to overcome them. Plans are not made to be engraved on stones but to be changed according to the change in situations. As plans for one phase go into action, planning for the next phase must be under way, supported by feedback from the previous phases.
Planning should be, an integral part of the whole process of educational management. It can help the decision-makers at all levels from teachers to minister level to make better decisions. It can help them to visualize their objectives, various options, and the implications of each. Planning can help to attain larger and better comprehensive results within the constraints of available resources. To achieve such benefits, the planning process must consider, with a wide-angle lens, many interconnecting variables which should be considered in the holistic view. Planners must first see where decision-makers want to go and what they want to do; For instance, they must look where the society wants to go, and what they need from education to get there, to cons
ider the students and their needs, ambitions, the required knowledge and the educational pedagogics and technology, and not least the ability of the educational system to assess itself and to take corrective actions to improve its own performance.
Why a new kind of planning became necessary?
During the past decades, the nations and its educational systems were subjected to a torrent of scientific, technical, economic and demographic, political and cultural changes that changed everything. The consequence on education was tough; tasks, and problems that far exceeded in size and complexity anything they had ever experienced.
Starting in the 1950s, the developing countries responded to their new situations, with expansion in their educational strategy. These targets were widely adopted by individuals and nations. They called for 100% participation in primary education, and high increase in participation rates in secondary and higher education. The idea of manpower was very strong in developing countries; as their overall development was handicapped by scarcities of all kinds of specialized labor. Thus, it made sense to give initial priority to education. By the end of the 1960s several critical problems began to appear creating educational crisis that nearly gripped most of the developing countries. Some of those problems was (P.H. Coombs, 1970):
a) Imbalances within the educational system, expanding in primary, secondary and higher education were not synchronized. Even some necessary components as teachers, buildings, equipment, curricula, etc were not properly planned. The result was a series of failures; important missing component handicap the other component. For instance, increasing the enrolment of students while there is no enough classrooms or teachers for them will increase the classrooms capacity affecting the quality of the educational process.
b) Demand for excess of capacity: setting very high targets, making big promises, and the expansion of education increased the expectations of students. The widening gap between demand on education and capacity was increased by youth population increase which turned the expansion targets into moving targets.
c) Costs rising faster than revenues: the increase on educational demand created a political pressure for increasing education budgets, the budgets could not keep pace with the rising costs and increase in student numbers. To overcome these problems there were three solutions. First was to cut the targets; but this was politically unaccepted. Second was to direct resources to increase educational efficiency; this was very hard to implement, as cutting targets was required. Third solution was to spread available resources thinner over more and more students on the expense of quality. This was the main solution taken, but it was a false progress as it was only concerned with numbers.
d) Non-financial bottlenecks: At least three other types of shortage afflicted educational development
I. Limited administrative abilities of educational systems to plan and execute plans to reach required results.
II. Time needed to recruit and develop staffs for new schools
III. Limited resources allocated.
These bottle-necks became a major determinant of how fast and in what directions an educational system could develop and how much financial resources needed. Some countries found themselves in this awkward position; large construction credits, fine new facilities without staff, urgently needed structures and systems they could not be implemented.
e) Not enough jobs for education system graduates: the aims of education for most students is to win a good job. The newly developed nations were in shortage of educated manpower to replace expatriates. But they found themselves a decade later with more educated people than their economy able to use.
f) The wrong kind of education: the problem was that many students were receiving the wrong kind of education. It is doubtful if education was designed to fit its graduates to join the labor market. Irrelevant education, was the prices for the strategy of linear expansion. Another consequence was the increase in drop-out rates, so many of youngsters who went to school left quite early to learn even to read.
The Egyptian education system faced all these problems. These problems result a waste of economic resources and human power, a severe handicap to national development. The educational system must be assessed, well adapted to the needs of its environment and efficient use of resources. This couldn’t be built in a day or even a few years. This means that education planning should be done differently. It shouldn’t concern only about numbers, it should consider so many aspects as the economic environment, labor market, available resources, and so many other things.
The cumulative experience of recent years indicates that many development strategies for developing countries have failed to reach the required results. Especially regarding the unemployment among young people, unemployment problem is one of the most urging problems most countries are suffering from, countries are trying to expand their educational systems, and to restructure the education system to give greater emphasis to technical and vocational education. Strategies and plans for educational reform aimed at minimizing unemployment and improving links between Education and labor market. This must be considered in combination with policies for creating additional employment opportunities.