Essay: Investigation of the Egyptian Technical Education system

Chapter One: Research Introduction
1.1. Introduction
Egypt is currently facing a transition phase. In 5 years, Egypt witnessed two revolutions. One of them was a reaction to socio”economic 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.
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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 advantages 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 political 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 2007) 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 (M”hlemeyer & 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 consider 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.
The key planning questions
TVET planning is not an easy job; formulating appropriate objectives, overcoming constraints of high capital costs, rapid change in technology, and effective management practices are all constrains that affect the TVET planning. Investing in vocational education may not lead directly to economic growth, but it is regarded as a main tool to transform from school to labor market, and enable young people to acquire employment-related skills. The major problems in TVET planning are clearly defined objectives, organizational structure, quality and cost-effectiveness.
There are some essential planning questions which should be answered (UNESCO, 1970).
1. What should be the priority objectives and functions of the educational system including its component?
2. What are the available alternatives to reach these objectives and functions?
3. How much of the country’s resources should be allocated to education at the expense of other things (not only of financial resources but physical resources)?
4. Who should pay? How should the financing of educational be distributed between the direct beneficiaries of education and society as a whole?
5. How should the resources available to education be allocated among different levels, types and components of the system (e.g. Vocations, teachers, building and equipment, curricula development, etc.)?
The answer of those questions will give a clear picture for what is required to be done and with what resources.
2.7. Education in Egypt
2.7.1. The Egyptian Educational System
Free schooling is guaranteed by the constitution till the secondary education level. More than 2.5m students are in the schooling education system in Egypt. More than 90% of students are enrolled in public schools at all levels of education (Al-Azhar education system is not calculated), the total expender in 2015 on the pre-university education reached 55m, with a ratio of 68.1% of the total expender on education and 8% of the total expender. (CAPMAS, 2016).
Figure 2. 2 Source: CAPMAS, 2016
Figure 2. 3 Education system in Egypt
The education system in Egypt is the largest in North Africa and Middle East. With more than 20.5 million students in different levels and types of education, around 90% of them in pre-university schools. The system includes more than 43,000 schools, 35 universities (17 public, 17 privates, and Al-Azhar), 8 public technical colleges, 121 private higher institutes, 22 private middle institutes, and almost 1.7 million personnel (teaching and non-teaching staff) (ETF, 2011). Over the past few years, Egypt has achieved a major development in education enrolment. As chart ‘. shows, the enrolment rate in primary education increased from 62.8% in 1970 to 83.7% in 1985 and then, to more than 98% in 2003; which indicates that Egypt has achieved a universal enrolment rate in primary education. Also, the rate of the students who completed the fifth grade increased from less than 81% in 1970 to more than 97% in 1985 and almost 99% in 2003. Moreover, the enrolment rates in secondary education have increased during the period, where the enrolment rate in secondary education has increased from 28.4% in 1970 to 61.4% in 1985, then, exceeded 87% in 2003.
Figure 2. 4 Employment rate by Education
Unfortunately, these major quantitative achievements have not been complemented by qualitative improvement. The education system in Egypt has failed so far to produce the economy needs. This mismatch generated many major problems, among which is the unsatisfactory competitiveness ranking for the Egyptian human capital and labor market efficiency (ETF, 2011). Poor-quality education is usually the output of factors as non-existence of a comprehensive reform strategy, absence of political will, highly-centralized system, shortage of financial resources, inefficient public allocations, ineffective monitoring and evaluation systems, absence of results-based management, and lack of accountability.
The public education sector is still the main provider for educational services; where almost 93% of pre-university and 80% of higher education are enrolled in public institutions (ETF, 2011). Accordingly, the public budget is the main financing source for education in Egypt. Due to the high increase in the Egyptian population the numbers of students have significantly increased, which increased the budget shortage and, thus, the quality of education has been compromised. Numerous evidences for poor quality education can be observed. The High rates of unemployment for the highly educated job seekers, growing trends of informality in the labor market, the public sector is still the main job provider, in addition to the labor low productivity rates. This has resulted a scarcity of skilled labor who can match the needs of a competitive and globalized economy.
One of the main sources for skilled labor is the Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system, that is why TVET has a major concern in Egypt. The Ministry of Education administers a total of 1,800 Technical Education schools; Industrial, commercial and agricultural secondary schools, with more than 1.6 million students enrolled in the 3 year technical schools or 5 year advanced technical schools; the first 3 years are similar to the 3 year system, while the additional 2 years prepare the students to work as senior technicians. Graduates of both tracks may access higher education according to their results in the final exam. However, technical education graduates have a very limited opportunity for higher education, while the majority supposed to join the labor market.
TVET includes other technical schools affiliated to other ministries such as Industry, Defense, Health which provide technical education and training specific to their sector.
Also, there are ministries (Industry, Housing, Manpower, Agriculture, Health, and Culture, Social Solidarity, and others) that offer basic level of vocational training to employed and unemployed workers.
Table 2. 1 MoE Statistics 2012/2013
The TVET system in Egypt suffers from the lack of coordination among different TVET bodies, as well as the absence of accreditation system. These problems are reflected in some recent surveys and studies which was conducted by UNESCO, ILO, World Bank, and others. These surveys show that most TVET institutions are: supply driven not market demands driven, public funded with annual budgets based on previous year’s expenditure not on the  actual performance or action plan; no clear standards for training; lack of practical hands on training; outdated curriculum; lack of modern and advanced specializations; obsolete equipment; unutilized available modern equipment; misallocation of resources; overcrowded practical training workshops; and extremely expanding theoretical parts, lack of follow-up and evaluation of TVET graduates (ETF, 2011). These TVET system problems resulted in a gap between the skills produced within the TVET and the labor market requirements, especially in the advanced occupations.
2.7.2. What is Technical and Vocational Education and Training?
Vocational education is defined according to Keller (1953), Evans (1971), Eurich (1985) and Pautler (1990) as training intended to progress individuals’ general proficiency, particularly regarding their present or future professions.  The term does not generally take account of training for the professions. The UNESCO indicated that the TVET is supposed to be a multi-domain concern, using integrated approaches; TVET programs must be arranged as inclusive and complete systems, meeting the needs of all learners and available to all (UNESCO, 1999). Later on the UNESCO and ILO ‘s referred to TVET as “those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge related to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life.” (UNESCO and ILO, 2002). In recent years, skills development concept emerged as a synonymous to TVET (Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2009). According to these definitions, TVET sometimes also known as Vocational Education and Training (VET). TVET can be regarded as a mean of preparing for the world of work. It also involves lifelong learning; In its comprehensive definition, TVET includes technical education, vocational education, vocational training, apprenticeship or on-the-job training, delivered in a formal and informal way.
Vocational Education according to Koedinger and Corbett (2006) can be described as teaching procedural knowledge; or in other words implicit knowledge, imperative knowledge, or the know-how which is used in performing some tasks. Procedural knowledge can be straightforwardly applied to a task. On the other hand, technical education can be described as teaching declarative knowledge, descriptive knowledge or propositional knowledge which requires wider scientific field and theoretical knowledge.
TVET purpose is to prepare learners / trainees for jobs that are manual or practical activities, non-theoretical and related to a specific trade or vocation. Technical education is considered as a part of the formal education system. while, vocational training is linked to the labor market and employment development system.
Technical Education is a direct gate to the labor market, the technical Education graduates have 2 paths either to continue education, and only 5 to 10% of them is allowed to continue to the higher education, while the rest have to enter the labor market (Amer, Mona, 2007).
2.7.3. Technical Education in Egypt
The Ministry of Education (MoE) administers about 1,900 technical and vocational schools that lead to a 3-year diploma or 5-year advanced diploma. The government policies limited access to higher education by forcing about 60% of preparatory school graduates to join technical secondary schools, those graduates mostly enter the labor market as they have very limited opportunities to access universities. Technical Education is considered as less admired than the general secondary education track which leads to university. The technical education is the choice for most of families. ‘More than three-quarters of children from the poorest families enter the technical track, compared with about one-quarter from the wealthiest ones’ (Shady, 2013).
About 53% of students in secondary education attend technical education.
Figure 2. 5 Secondary Education, Source: CAPMAS, 2016
More than 1.6m students are enrolled in Technical education in three specialties
o Industry (industry specialization includes engineering specializations and construction specializations)
o Agriculture (include agricultural activities in addition to food processing)
o Commerce (commerce specialization includes commerce specialization in addition to Truism and hotels specialization)
(Ministry of Education, vocational education ‘ building and construction section) .
Figure 2. 6 Technical Education Sectors, Source: CAPMAS, 2016
2.7.3.1. Strategy
The Technical Education Strategy (2011/2012 ‘ 2016-17) builds the framework for technical education. The Strategy was developed with the aim to create a technical education system with a significant role in the economic development through offering high quality technical education that promote technical skills, creativity, critical thinking; social values learning for life (Technical Education Strategy, The period from 2011/2012 to 2016/2017).
The Technical Education Vision
Technical education system responds to the needs of the labor market in quantity and quality to become a leading model in the region
The Technical Education Mission
Technical education is committed to play its role in the economic and social development through providing high quality education to its students that renders them capable of scientific, creative and critical thinking, learning for life, gaining values and mastering the necessary skills
The Strategy contains seven strategic goals.
‘ Enhancement schools’ infrastructure.
‘ Improve teaching standards and create quality assurance of technical education;
‘ Increase enrolment and increase awareness of technical Education career paths;
‘ Use information technology in labor market information systems and to improve technical education programs;
‘ Develop cooperation mechanisms, decentralization and self-management, expand innovative systems and encourage the use of capabilities offered by technical education providers;
‘ Develop continuous education, learning and training mechanisms;
‘ Attract external and non-traditional sources for financing the technical education.
There is another strategy developed on 2014, called pre-university education strategy 2014 ‘ 2030, but it emphasized on general education, and the technical education part was built on the previous strategy, only made some changes in the strategic goals.
‘ Training for Employment
‘ Expansion in the modernization of technical education disciplines in Egypt and Sudan.
‘ Provide complementary program for general education graduates to prepare them for the job market.
‘ Curriculum development to cope with the changing requirements of the labor market, and the local environment associated with the development of comprehensive assessment and evaluation system.
‘ Availability of equipment and education technology according to the quality of technical education and the number of students and the developed curriculum.
‘ Improve the professional, financial and moral standard of teacher
‘ Support governance and accountability mechanisms for all technical education managerial levels.
‘ Improve the legislation and the structure of permanent capital project in the framework of the economic return.
‘ Activating Partnerships (Local / International) And the expansion of work with developing agents and stimulate it.
2.7.3.2. TVET system
The technical and vocational education and training system in Egypt consists of 2 main segments; The formal system, and the main player is the technical Education under the Ministry of Education. The second segment is the informal system which is the training system and it is generally divided by sectors and are scattered among a variety of ministries.
Table 2. 2 Types of Education
Technical Vocational
Formal Academic technical education School-based vocational education, vocational training
Non-formal Work-based training Non-school TE providers On-the-job training Non-school VT providers
Source: TVET Issues and Debates, World Bank Institute
The Technical & Vocational Education in Egypt is divided to:
‘ Formal TVET system
Basic education consists of primary and a preparatory levels of education. The primary stage is six years, while the preparatory stage is three years. Students who pass the final exam at the end of primary school (grade 6) move to preparatory schools while those who fail for 2 trials go to vocational preparatory schools or dropout from education.
According to the students’ performance at the final preparatory level exam (grade 9), students continue to general secondary education, technical or vocational secondary education or dropout from education. The general secondary education is a 3 year system while the secondary technical or vocational system is a 3 year or 5 year system. There are 3 tracks on the technical or vocational system; industrial, commercial and agricultural.
The Technical Education runs several programs
o Technical Education: school based education, where the graduates can join higher Education
o Vocational Education: school based education with more emphasizes on the practical training, where the graduates can’t join higher Education
o Dual System: this program was built according to the German dual education system, this system uses the apprenticeship methodology, where the student has the theory and practice; the students have their theoretical studies at the school for 2 days a week, and the practical part is conducted on a company for 4 days a week. The Employment outcomes for the dual system are positive; about 86% of graduates get job offers from the companies where they received training, but only 56% took up the offer, a major number still preferred to join the higher education track (ETF, 2009). The number of students in this system is around 30,000 students, and the Ministry of Education is looking to expand in this system.
Tertiary education is administered by the Ministry of Higher Education.  The system includes public and private universities, in addition to public and private non-university institutions; as middle technical institutes running 2 year programs and higher technical institutions running 4 year programs.
‘ Non-formal and informal TVET systems
Technical and vocational training courses have a little connection with the labor market requirements. Recently, greater emphasis is being made to develop TVET systems linked to labor market and foster partnerships between industry and training centers. These practices were intended to develop different mechanisms of providing practical skills training.
The training is scattered among different ministries, the most important in terms of numbers are the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with the productivity and vocational training department centers; Ministry of Manpower and Migration, with their own network of vocational training centers (VTCs) and the Ministry of Housing (TOMOHAR3 training centers). There are also VTCs belonging to other sectoral ministries, such as Social Affairs or Health. A special case is represented by the Ministry of Tourism, which does not have training centers affiliated and which depends on the provision of relevant skills for the labor force of the sector on a very limited number of tourism TSS (around 20 in all the country, many of them in deficient conditions) and on schemes of on-the-job training, which have developed a very important role in the past but are clearly insufficient for the growth of the demand of the sector.
The Ministry of Education is the largest TVET provider in the TVET system, administering around 1,900 school in 3 tracks; industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors with more than 1.6 million students.
The complexity and fragmentation of TVET in Egypt is clearly illustrated in the number of ministries involved in the system; the Egyptian TVET system is extremely complexity and fragmented, with more than 30 organizations involved in TVET (These include the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, there are also ministries in charge of vocational training, which include Trade and Industry, Housing, Manpower and Emigration, Agriculture, Health, Culture, and Social Solidarity. In addition to many agencies, such as NAQAAE, the three sectoral training councils (Industrial, Building and Construction, and Tourism), and the Social Fund for Development, and others). It is worthy to mention that according to the current TVET Strategy for the first time these organizations have worked together to develop a strategic plan for the TVET reform.  A lot of development have been conducted to the TVET sector, Innovative programs, such as the National Skills Standard Project, Mubarak Kohl Initiative, and the EU-funded TVET Reform Program.
The following are the main changes observed in recent years (ETF, 2014).
‘ Key stockholders began to work together in the reform of TVET despite the complexities of the system.
‘ The emergence of partnerships between public and private TVET providers.
‘ More focus on education quality, reflected in creating the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE).
‘ Definition of strategies for the reform of pre-university education.
‘ The creation of sectoral training councils (the Industrial Training Council, the Tourism Training Council, and the Building and Construction Training Council).
‘ The development through the National Skills Standards Project in industrial, building and construction, and tourism sectors.
‘ Emphasizing the decentralization processes, which have been piloted in the education sector, including TVET.
2.7.3.3. Governance
Formal TVET in Egypt is provided through secondary technical schools. The key public institutions in charge of basic TVET are:
‘ The Ministry of Education (MoE), which is responsible for technical and vocational schools with around 1.6 Million students
‘ The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), which is responsible of middle technical institutes with around 30,000 students
There are other ministries which run technical or vocations schools as ministry of Health or ministry of military production, but the numbers of their students are not that significant.
The role of the MoE is to develop policies, legislation, and standards in terms of national policies. These roles include developing curricula, developing and managing human resources developing system. In addition, it establishes policies to provide professional incentives for teachers to improve their level of professional work and educational outcomes. Accordingly, the current structure of the MOE focuses on six specific tasks: (1) policies and strategic planning, (2) monitoring and evaluation (quality management), (3) curriculum and education technology, (4) information and technology development, (5) developing human resources, and (6) financial and administrative affairs. The Ministry of Education is responsible for making regulations and organizing the education system with the support of three centers: The National Centre of Curricula Development, the National Centre for Education Research, and the National Centre for Examinations and Educational Evaluation (NCEEE). Each center has its own focus in formulating education policies with other state level committees (EODC and World Bank, 2014).
Low employment rates for technical and vocational graduates led the government of Egypt to reconsider the TVET policy. This led the Government of Egypt to cooperate with the European Union to reform the TVET system, where TVET Reform Program was developed aiming to strengthen the TVET system and adjust it to overcome the economic development challenges. The main purpose of these reforms is to develop high quality, demand driven and competency based TVET system.
The TVET II Program contains three main components (TVET II Action fiche for Egypt):
o Improving the Governance of the Egyptian TVET system: develop mechanisms for effective and efficient Governance and financing of the TVET system to overcome the fragmentation in the system
o Enhancing the relevance and quality of TVET: TVET provision is in need of modernization of specialties, curricula, professional development for teachers and administrators, quality assurance system and accreditation system. The participation of the economic sectors in defining the skills needs for its labor and their involvement in the provision.
o Transition to employment: overcome the difficulty in transition of employment to labor market due to the unavailability of Labor Market Information system, which affects negatively the relevance of many of the skills that are provided in the system. This improvement can be done through the implementation of a mechanism to identify labor market information that can contribute to the improvement of relevant TVET programs to match the labor market demand, to improve the employability of youth and workers. Also, offering training programs to meet identified labor market demand, and support to career guidance will be provided to students, trainees and current employees.
In the frame of the TVET Reform project, the National Quality Program and the Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS) / the Egyptian Accreditation Council (EGAC) / the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE) are entitled to establish a national quality assurance system to ensure the training quality, trained teaching staff in line with international standards (TVET II Action fiche for Egypt).
This reform is designed to promote stakeholder’s engagement in the formulation and implementation of the TVET reform system and the formulation of a national regulatory body and support the structure for the Egyptian TVET system.
challenges facing the reform of TVET in Egypt are:
‘ Role of Government, Ministries and other TVET Stakeholders: the high fragmentation and the lack of information and cooperation; even duplication of actions by the Governmental Agencies involved in TVET.
‘ Engaging community and economic sectors as a significant player in TVET: the TVET authorities are working in isolation from the labor market, economic sectors and the community.
‘ Systematic professional development of teachers: teachers are facing the problem of how to cope with and utilize new technology in the teaching process and in the TVET programs.
‘ Keeping pace with technological changes: There are many challenges for establishing appropriate infrastructures, upgrading available training facilities. The curricula focused on theory and give less weight to the practical part and skills building.
‘ TVET system is not a demand driven approach: most TVET Centers are concentrating their efforts on developing programs without sufficient understanding to economic sectors requirements. Links between TVET system and economic sectors should be developed.
‘ Social image of technical versus academic education: the social image for vocational work is quite low.
‘ Funding of TVET Institutions: limited budget is a significant problem; the TVET institutions are not able to employ qualified trainers, train their trainers, develop their training facilities.
‘ Quality Assurance absence in the TVET System
2.7.3.4. Financing
Investment in school has not kept pace with the rapid increase in the students’ numbers, due to the high rates of population growth and increase enrolment rates as a result of expanding in the education accessibility strategy. As a result, many schools operate in shifts to absorb the increasing number of students, which lead to cutting the activities lessons, As Sarah Hartmann noted in research in Cairo schools: ‘Most students were aware that it is not just the teachers who are to blame for these deficits, but also the structural constraints which create more difficulties for them to teach effectively during regular class hours.’
Although the Technical Education system administrated by the Ministry of Education budget is reaching 13B EGP, it is still comparatively low.
The TVET system is financed through:
‘ Budget allocations: from the government
‘ Student fees: secondary TVET education charge a small amount of money (around 70 EGP), but these revert totality to the Ministry of Finance.
‘ Donors:  Funding is provided through grants to ministries and through funded TVET programs. These donors could be local donors as Misr Alkhair or International donors as the European Union; World Bank; and National Governments (Canada, France, Germany, United States, etc.).
Funding is an important issue to be considered in strategy formulation and implementation to develop the Egyptian TVET sector. Unluckily, assigned budgets are marginal if compared to the required funds to TVET, in spite of the significant value of TVET to economic performance and social advancements. Reforming the TVET sector became an essential issue; teachers need to be developed, schools need to be improved, equipment must be constantly maintained and upgraded (Egyptian TVET Reform Strategy Draft, 2012). ‘VET finance depends mainly on national revenues. This underlines the point that public funding is the key to investment in a nation’s education and training systems’ (ETF, 2014).
International and national donors also offer assistance to the improvement of the Egyptian TVET sector, yet they must not be considered as a funding source.
TVET financing is primarily done through allocations from different ministries, unfortunately those funds are not to the extent of the required activities or performance and it is not determined according to any cost analyses, a major part of the budget is directed to staff salaries and the rest is spent on operations and improving the quality and developing the sector, ‘Currently, budget allocations are pinned to ministries and TVET providers to pay for salaries, running costs and investments. The biggest load of expenses is on salaries which are up to 80 percent’ (Draft Egyptian TVET Reform Strategy, 2012).
TVET financing in Egypt is quite complicated, the Egyptian government is obliged to increase the quality of school education as it is considered as the main supply for qualified labor. Several countries have developed different models for financing TVET sectors, however it was agreed that the best models would be the ones which balance responsibility between beneficiaries, namely the worker, the employer and the government. Practically, the change in the TVET financing system will require cautious planning and will take place slowly (Draft Egyptian TVET Reform Strategy, 2012).
The Reform of TVET will need huge investments. The developing of future financing system cannot be separated from the establishing of new governance system. Determining more suitable governance structures for TVET institutes relies more on how the sector is funded more than what the institutes structure is. The main if not the only source of funding is the Egyptian Government (Abrahart, 2003).
Currently, in most countries there is some signs that governments are tending to decentralize the financing decisions to local levels, except for example where there is a strong emphasis on regionalization (e.g. Morocco). Taxes on employers or training levies are used in some countries (e.g. Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia). The legal status of the levies and taxes on employers is constrained. There is ongoing dialogue between government and employers about their objectives and nature, and how to make the system more efficient. The status of levies on employers is not functioning in Jordan and Egypt as a result of a lengthy legal case (ETF, 2014).
2.7.3.5. TVET teachers and trainers
Teachers in Egypt are suffering from low qualifications, underpayment and inexperience. Even though the national strategy for education which includes teacher training as one of its priorities, it has not yet introduced systematically. As a result, teacher training programs in Egypt are scarce and low standard.
The Ministry of Education cooperates with donors in the field of teacher training but these programs are not offered to all teachers and trainers.
The teachers’ professional development is not that important to the government, that is why teacher training is fragmented as a result of deferent developing projects. The teachers’ strategy has been poorly implemented and monitored (TVET Country profile Egypt, 2012).
2.7.3.6. Educational System Strengths, Weaknesses
The public TVET system is managed by a plenty of government agencies.  These agencies work independently, although the Government tries to bring more coordination and cooperation between them. Accordingly, in 2002, the Supreme Council on Human Resource Development SCHRD was established; it was chaired by the Minister of Manpower and Emigration, while other ministries were represented by senior officials. As one of its first tasks, the SCHRD issued a Policy paper on Skills Development in Egypt, defining the Government’s strategic objectives for TVET.
In 2014, a new degree was issued canceling the SCHRD and establishing the National Council on Human Resource Development NCHRD; this new council is headed by the Prime Minister and with the representation of all the concerned ministries. This new council is supported by 2 councils; the Executive council for Technical Education and Vocational Training, and the Executive council for manpower skills development.
The Executive council for Technical Education and Vocational Training is headed by the minister of Education and with the participation of all the concerned ministers, this council is entitled to develop the technical education strategies and to develop the regulatory, standards, and accreditation frameworks. While the Executive council for manpower skills development, which is headed by the minister of manpower and migration with the participation of the concerned ministries, is entitled to develop a professional and vocational training for the new entrants to the labor market or who have previously worked to acquire new skills, in addition to the dropouts from education, and those with special needs. But unfortunately, these councils didn’t function till now.
During the past few years, some studies were conducted on the TVET by different organizations as World Bank, ILO, UNESCO, even the Ministry of Education.  These studies expressed obstacles facing the Technical Education in Egypt, it can be summarized in:
‘ Specializations of the technical education:  Some of the specializations are in need for reform to cope with the technological changes, and to satisfy the industry needs which decrease the unemployment among the technical education graduates.
‘ The curricula and teaching and training techniques: Some of the curricula and teaching techniques mostly characterized by stagnancy and even failure to keep pace with the modern trends, also they don’t provide the students with opportunities to be creative nor the inclination to skill development or self-learning according to the labor market requirements.
‘ Workshops, labs and teaching aids: The technical schools’ facilities are not up to the required standards. As a matter of fact, some schools suffer from a real shortage of equipment, labs and workshops; this shortage is  in terms of quantity or quality, while some other schools own the latest equipment and labs, but unfortunately they are not used efficiently due to several reasons as the fear of using the equipment and labs (not to expose the persons in charge of them to punishment due to breakdown), unavailable budgets or even spare parts for maintenance, the unavailability of raw materials.
‘ Finance: The greatest impact of the government’s budget failure is reflected on technical facilities, training process, teachers’ development and rewards.
‘ Management and organization: technical education suffers from the difficulty of promotion in its most levels; which frustrates most of the personnel. In addition to that, the job hierarchy suffers from the lack of job classifications in all levels.
‘ Student activities: Some schools suffer from the lack of student activities due to the belief of some persons in charge of technical schools that such activities are useless, in addition to the unavailability of space for activities, also there is no interest in summer training which has a negative impact on the students’ capabilities and development.
Ministry of Education (Technical and Vocational Education) Strengths:
The strengths of technical education can be summed up in the following: –
‘ Existence of technical schools spreading all over the Egypt.
‘ Large number of Technical schools
‘ Active Involvement of Civil Society through some initiatives as Misr Alkhair, Agha Khan, etc’
‘ Availability of in-depth understanding and many experiences due to work practices.
‘ Many schools are equipped with some equipment and labs which can be efficiently used for enhancing the educational process.
‘ The effort exerted to maximize the benefit gained from developing projects funded through local and international partnerships.
‘ Technical and Vocational education strategy.
‘ Availability of functional qualification and training programs in different specializations in addition to small projects management programs to promote and create opportunities for the graduates.
‘ Committed leadership to innovative practices.
‘ Continuous development of the capabilities of the administrative staff through workshops and missions dispatched to the European countries and the United States.
‘ Agreements for supplying modern equipment and facilities to the technical education schools.
‘ Manufacturing some educational equipment at the industrial technical schools through the capital project.
‘ Developed database for managing the students’ affairs.
‘ Variety of the technical specializations of industrial education.
‘ Technical education sector has many products and service.
‘ Many training centers affiliated to the technical education system.
Ministry of Education Technical and Vocational Education Weaknesses:
The weaknesses of technical education can be summed up in the following:
‘ Shortage of the infrastructure and facilities of some schools.
‘ Obsolete facilities and technology, in addition to lack of maintenance.
‘ shortage of raw materials
‘ Lack of utilization of some of the available resources (human resources ‘ facilities and equipment).
‘ The admission system mainly depends on the students’ grades and not their capabilities and desires.
‘ Decline of the students’ academic level and training levels.
‘ Unmotivated students’ due to their belief that will not find a good job opportunity with the certificate they will have.
‘ Lack of the information available about the labor market needs.
‘ No influence of employers and industry in shaping, developing, standardizing and implementing policies and curricula.
‘ Insufficiency of the funds allocated for the development of technical education institutions.
‘ Non-completion or non-execution of previous strategies developed for the development of technical education.
‘ Not completing the cadre project for teachers’ due to some negative elements evolved from wrong interpretations.
‘ Outdated curricula, or not matching with the labor market requirements.
‘ Absence of a linkage between some specializations and the local environment and labor markets.
‘ shortage in the number of the teachers in some specializations, particularly in Upper Egypt governorates.
‘ low income and ineffective bonuses system in linking incentives to performance.
‘ Low quality of education and training offered to the students.
‘ Low skill standards of the industrial practical teachers’ training.
‘ Lack of teachers and trainers training & development programs.
‘ Unmotivated teachers and trainers in addition to unethical behavior of some teachers.
‘ Variance of the qualifications of the technical industrial education teachers.
‘ Low efficiency showed by many technical education schools.
‘ Deterioration of the technical education facilities as well as the infrastructure especially in communications and information technology.
‘ Lack of strategic direction, in addition to, inadequate strategies and programs.
‘ The difficulty in disposal of the old machines and equipment.
‘ Shortage of technical and service labor as well as security staffs in the schools.
‘ Shortage in qualified and trained human resources.
‘ Shortage in student activities.
‘ Limited cooperation between schools and its communities.
‘ Shortage of a second line of leadership.
‘ Poor capabilities of most of the administrative personnel.
‘ The society’s bad image towards the technical education.
‘ Mismatch between the outputs of technical education and the labor market needs.
‘ Absence of a National Qualifications Framework
‘ Lack of coordination among donors and developing agents which creates duplication and contradiction among the different initiatives.
‘ Absence of a monitoring & evaluation system for the educational process.
2.8. Benefits of Technical Vocational Education and Training
Research on TVET indicated that there are numerous positive impacts for individuals, companies, economy, and society as a whole (Vila, 2000; 2005; Feinstein et al., 2008). McMahon classified the advantages of TVET (McMahon, 2004) and lifetime learning (McMahon, 1998) into two groups; market and non-market advantages.  Also, a study for the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training in 2013 mentions that TVET benefits are classified into market and non-market benefits, whereas the market and the non-market benefits have an impact on organizations, individuals, and countries.
According to Lettmayr and Riihim”ki (2011), the benefits of the TVET sector are classified in two different groups, which are social benefits and economic benefits. Both can be studied on three stages: the micro-level (the gains for people) , the miso-level (the gains for companies/ group) , and the macro-level (the gains for the whole society ). It is important to take into consideration that some benefits may evolves due to the intersection of diverse stages, for example, developing staff skills in a company will lead to more pleased workers, which will have a positive impact on their motivation and creativity. Social benefits of TVET are more complex to be identified than the economic benefits, as they are embedded in the behaviors of the societies. Economic TVET benefits can be regarded as tangible benefits, and they can be easily explained through the economic units’ analysis. while on the contrary, Social benefits, are more widespread and are defined by overlapping effects with complex causal mechanisms. In contrary with the economic gains, they are more tangible and measurable, social gains are more described as qualitative outcomes. Both types of gain are interrelated. ‘Low economic gains can generate trivial social results or even worse, harmful ones. According to a research paper carried out by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Education, countries reported more on the social gains than on economic ones, yet explanations are not provided. It could be the lack of related research connecting VET to social gains or the fact that the existing research has only lately started to appear, which makes it hard to create empirically confirmed causal mechanisms’ (CEDEFOP, 2011).
‘ Economic Benefits
‘At the macro level, economic benefits on VET include profitability and economic growth and the labor-market outcomes of VET include reduction of unemployment and disparity resulting from more people acquiring a VET qualification’ (Hoeckel as cited in Lettmayr & Riihim”ki, 2011). The availability of qualified labor is one of the main reasons for attracting foreign investment, which decrease the unemployment rate and enhance the economic performance. ‘The impacts of VET on labor-market outcomes usually reveal direct or indirect collective individual productivity effects’ (Hoeckel as cited in Lettmayr & Riihim”ki, 2011). Several studies exposed the relation between human capital and GDP growth (Barro and Lee, 1993; Benhabib and Spiegel, 1994; Barro, 1998; Hanushek and Kim, 1995; Gemmell, 1996; Bassanini and Scarpetta, 2001; Keller, 1996; Cohen and Soto, 2007). Yet, a few researches studied how the diverse stages of education add to economic growth, such as different kinds of TVET. A research conducted in 2011 indicated that ‘the main finding highlighted by countries has elevated contribution to the labor market, higher employment, the chance to gain a skill for all categories which did not earlier have one, and the opportunity to move forward in a professional career. Through lifetime learning, people can enhance their work prospects and qualification levels. Higher financial compensation offers new chances that lead to additional economic and social outcomes, such as economic independence, and can also improve emotional and mental well-being. All these aspects eventually influence individual output’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). No doubt that as much as the TVET system is developed, as much the employment rate increase affecting the economic performance positively, this is clearly obvious in the developed countries, as they all have a developed TVET systems, and even they are trying to develop it more.
‘At the miso level, an increase in productivity and innovation leads to an increase in the general performance of firms. Furthermore, workers’ capabilities add more value and help in raising the firms’ profit margins after attaining a VET degree’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). ‘Economic theory forecasts that firms investing in VET are supposed to enjoy higher performance rates. This is to be observed in a meta-analysis of 66 US researches, which concluded training to be linked to performance measures, particularly measures of operations, such as client satisfaction, employees’ performance, or organizational innovation’ (Crook et al., 2011). It is worthy to indicate that investing in developing staff skills not only must be linked to individuals’ current performance but also to the organizations future plans ‘In Europe there is substantial proof that organizations engaging in adult education boost efficient output. Researches in Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have also established an affirmative connection between VET and enhanced organizational productivity and technical advancements’ (Cedefop, 2011b). As linking to the TVET system will enable the organizations to find their future labor according to their requirements.
While, on the micro level, ‘VET helps individuals to earn more income, find a suitable employment, get incorporated into the market with acceptable earnings, and pursue better job opportunities as well as an enhanced social prestige’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). The direct impact of TVET system on its graduates is to have good job opportunities ‘VET reduces skill mismatch which is the difference between what the educational system offers and what the labor-market necessitates’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). While the TVET direct impact on the labor market is to have a more qualified labor on the job market fulfilling the economic sectors’ needs, ‘the major private market advantages of training and education for individuals are increased wages and enhanced job and career visions’ (Dickson and Harmon, 2011; Dickson and Smith, 2011; Dorsett et al., 2010). Researches indicated that adult learning and further training have a significant effect on the career of the applicants (Badescu et al., 2011).
Developed TVET systems which are linked to the economic sectors, supports the economic development and even it can work as a catalyst for development; the availability of qualified workforce encourages the investment and increase the welfare of the society.
‘ Social Benefits
Regarding the social dimension at the macro level, ‘the impact of VET across generations and within families is exceptional. Research has indicated that there is a positive association between VET and medical wellbeing and that VET can sustain the health of a country’s population. Additionally, the social cohesion which is a multifaceted concept that is assessed by acceptance, trust, formal and informal networking, and low levels of social polarization is another social gain resulting of VET. VET also reduces illegal and criminal acts in a society. Healthy relations among individuals are a constructive societal change that results from engaging in a VET program’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). Keeping youth engaged in TVET programs can avoid harmful behaviors like alcohol and drug addiction, and decreases the crime rate; as they will be committed to build their future. ‘This can be assessed by the positive connections between generations and each other, a more secure environment, and decrease of crime rate and social integration which can be explained as the mixture of underprivileged societal groups into its mainstream’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011).  If the youth was not engaged in something useful, they will be engaged in harmful activities, especially if they see no future opportunities for them to build their career. TVET and education in general can play this role through qualifying the manpower.
Additionally, ‘education and training have exterior impacts that are advantageous not only on the individual level, but also on the national level’ (McMahon, 1999), good health conditions, the declining rate of drug usage and crime can be considered as non-market benefits of education. There is strong evidence that education and TVET is linked to declining rate of crimes (Lochner, 2011).
‘Assessing non-market advantages of VET at nationwide or common levels is quite different from assessing advantages for individuals’. (Green et al. 2006), teaching and training may affect macro-social indicators of non-market advantages through their impact on social cohesion and integration, this can be understood as the shifting of a society’s disadvantaged minorities into the mainstream, this indicator is generally used to measure macro-social and non-market vocational advantages. Countries, such as Germany, England, Finland, Norway confirms that TVET has a positive impact on social marginalized individuals (Cedefop, 2011b).
At the miso level, ‘underprivileged and deprived groups feel more included within the society when engaged in VET activities’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). There are some non-market advantages for companies investing in TVET as researches says that there is a strong evidence that investment in manpower can decrease employees’ turnover and absenteeism (Becker, 1964; Bishop, 1991; 1994; Krueger and Rouse, 1998; Krueger and Rouse, 1998; Ghebregiorgis and Karsten, 2007). The relation between TVET and low of employee turnover rates proved significantly through different studies. A study for Kenyon (2005) indicted that apprentices’ low turnover rate is due to increasing job satisfaction between apprentices’ due to organizations investing in them, In addition to generating trained workers. Training increases both market and non-market advantages.
Some researches indicated that training has a positive impact on quality and customer satisfaction (Katou and Budhwar, 2007; Ely, 2004). Moreover, organizations offer training programs especially designed to improve the employees’ commitment to the organization (Green et al., 2000).
Finally, at the micro level, ‘an increase in the quality of life of individuals and boosts in their attitudes and motivation are to be witnessed. Personal well-being and personal development are also positive outcomes of participating in VET programs. VET can also act as a safety net for the students who dropped out of school or university and provide chances for those who have a jail record and/ or those who are in imprisoned. Its gains also incorporate a boost of self-esteem, self-valorization, self- confidence, self-knowledge, and makes an individual’s spare time of more quality by increasing his/ her feeling of autonomy, security and hopefulness’ (Lettmayr, Riihim”ki, 2011). Many studies have linked education, and non-market benefits to individuals. ‘the relationship between education and the three social outcomes, which are self-assessed health, political interest and interpersonal trust, for twenty different countries. The results showed a strong relationship between the higher levels of education and the improved outcomes in those three areas’ (OECD, 2010). A study for The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training studied the social benefits of TVET. It indicated that TVET has a strong link with better health, engagement in organizations and higher job satisfaction. The study Also found that TVET is associated with the increase in voluntary participation in countries such as in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Denmark.  Also, a relationship between TVET and job satisfaction was found in southern European countries, such as Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal, in addition to the countries with a well-developed TVET and apprenticeship system such as Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Denmark.
2.9. The Egyptian Labor Market
The Egyptian economy faced recession after the revolution of 2011, which affected the labor market, a major reform programs are under development in the economic, employment, and education and training sectors.
Figure 2. 7 Egypt GDP, Source: Central Bank of Egypt Jan2017
The Egyptian economy is gradually improving as the annual GDP growth rates is increasing from less than 2% in 2013/14 reaching to an average of 4.4% in 2014/15 and 3.4% in 2015/16, as the Egyptian government has introduced a bold economic development program.
Due to the drop in the economic performance during the past years, the poverty rate has increased over the past years. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), a significant increase in poverty after 2008 crisis from 20.6% in 2009 to 25.2% in 2011, and 26.3 in 2013, while it increases to 27.8% in 2015 (CAPMAS, 2016).
Figure 2. 8 Poverty rate in Egypt, Source: CAPMAS 2016
The increase in the poverty rate was due to the lack of jobs opportunities. The high rates of unemployment were accompanied with increase in the poverty rate.
The unemployment is defined as the condition where job seekers are not able to find a full-time job. The unemployment rate is measured through the number of unemployed person over the number of people in labor force. The rate of unemployment can differ according to the economic situations in addition to other condition.
Each person must have a job to get his living, in order to enable him to fulfil his demand and need. An unemployed person can’t achieve his living. The unemployed person is considered as a burden to his family and society.
Egypt is suffering from unemployment from several decades; the unemployment is very significant problem for Egypt. Many people are suffering from unemployment. The job opportunities are created at a slower pace compared to the population growth rate.
According to CAPMAS, the labor force volume in 2016 reached approximately 25.2m. The labor force participation rate for the working age segment 15 to 64 years old reached 48%. While the labor force participation decreased from 37.9% in 2009 to 36.6% for the age segment of 15 to 29 years in 2015, which means that less young people in the work force, this is an indicator for unemployment increase.
Figure 2. 9 Employment in Egypt, Source: CAPMAS 2016
While the unemployment reached 3.6m unemployed person by the end of 2016.
Figure 2. 10 Unemployment in Egypt, Source: CAPMAS 2016
The unemployment rate increased from 12.7% in 2012, to more than 13.3 % in 2013, but due to the economic reform, the unemployment rate started to decrease starting from 2014 reaching 13.2%, then to 12.8% in 2015, and 12.6% in 2016.
Figure 2. 11 Employment rates in Egypt Source: CAPMAS 2016
The unemployment rate for young people in the age segment 15 to 29 years old reached 27.3%. while 36.1% of unemployed individuals in the age segment 15 to 29 years have completed secondary or higher education (CAPMAS, 2016).
‘Around three-quarters of the unemployed are young people aged 15 to 29. This is partly because they queue for public sector jobs, not finding the adequate quality and security in jobs offered by the private sector’ (Krafft and Assaad, 2014).
Egypt is considered a very young nation.  ‘As around 31% of the population in 2013 is dependent, with 26 million children under the age of 15 years and another 29% between the ages of 15 and 30 years (24.4 million youth)’ (ENID, 2014).
Figure 2. 12 Egypt Age Structure, Source: SWTS-Egypt, 2012.
According to CAPMAS in 2012, about 77% of the unemployed were young people (15-29 years old), while around 80% of the total number of unemployed had at least a high school diploma. This means that the unemployment rates grow as the education level increases.
In a study conducted by ILO in 2012, it was found that youth with TVET represent the largest education segment where 38.7%, followed by primary education segment 20.4%. University education graduates represented 17.9%. Then followed by less than primary education 16.9% and with above intermediate education 4.2%. A small segment of youth ended their education with general secondary schooling 1.9%.
Figure 2. 13 Youth unemployment rates according to education level, Source: SWTS-Egypt, 2012.
The youth unemployment rates according to the education level present a clear picture for the relation between education and unemployment; Youth who had completed university education are the largest education segment among the unemployed 44.5%. while the second largest segment among the unemployed are the TVET graduates with 38.4%. While among inactive youth, TVET graduates made the largest segment with 37.3%, followed by youth with primary education level reaching 26.1%.
Figure 2. 14 Egypt Labor market structure, Source: SWTS-Egypt, 2012
Also, there is some other issues that affect the Egyptian labor market, as ‘low-quality employment, high levels of informal employment, and depressing wages. Young workers in Egypt are almost exclusively found in informal employment (91.1%) with very little differences between women and men, and rural and urban areas, respectively’ (Barsoum et al. 2014). About one third of Egyptian employees have legal contracts, of which only 30% have social insurance (SABER, 2014). Poor working conditions, temporary jobs, and low wages and salaries were reasons stated by more than 50% of youth surveyed in the 2012 (Barsoum et al. 2014). This can reflect that the high informality of the Egyptian labor market and the poor working conditions are one of the main reasons affecting the employability rate.
Figure 2. 15 Reasons for changing work, Source: SWTS-Egypt, 2012.
On the other hand, the other half wanted to change their job as it didn’t match their qualification (Barsoum et al. 2014). 47.7% of working youth are in jobs that do not match their education. This phenomenon has a negative impact on the employee’s satisfaction and productivity, this means that there is a mismatch between the labor skills and those needed by the economic sectors.
Source: SWTS-Egypt, 2012.
From this chart, we can see the mismatch; mainly in higher skilled occupations, especially professionals and technicians. The missing connection between education and training system and the labor market is the reason for this mismatch; the education and training system is working blindly which hinder them from providing the labor market with its requirements.
Also, the lack of labor market intermediation, counselling career and guidance, labor market information system, which can provide youth with relevant information about the labor market is another reason.
Figure 2. 16 Effective job search methods, Source: SWTS-Egypt, 2012
From this chart, the most successful employment method is through friends, relatives, and relations, where the worthiest method was employment offices.
There are many reasons for the unemployment, but the major reasons are fast growth in population, poor education, governmental policies, economic policies, poor training, fast changes in technology, economic recessions, unwillingness to work and personal reasons, business and work environment.
Unemployment has a great effect on the Egyptian economy and society. Not only this, ‘unemployment has a horrible negative impact on personal mentality, psychologically and physically on people. Nobody wants to be an unemployed person and play a miserable life and this is wished by most human beings’ (Krafft, C.; Assaad, R. 2014).
The unemployment problem is of a major concern, therefore, there is a huge efforts conducted in this field starting from the Youth Employment National Action Plan (NAP) of 2010’15, National Strategy for Training for Employment, TVET II Reform Project, where they seek to improve the labor market policies through developing employment offices, labor market information system, inject the career guidance in the technical education, and Entrepreneurship training, linking curricula development with the labor market, and improving the TVET governance system.
2.1. Demand and supply in the Egyptian Labor Market
A survey to the labor market conducted in 2013, indicated that 4 economic sectors are predicted to have growing labor demand over the next few years (3 to 5 years); those sectors were manufacturing, agribusiness, food and beverage, ICT and communications technology. 3 of these areas’ Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and ICT and Communications were stand outs before 2011 revolution and helped in driving the Egyptian economy in 2009 and 2010; they contribute to the growth rate and the overall GDP growth. In spite of the deterioration after 2013 revolution, stakeholders expect that these sectors remain strong with a tendency to grow and demand for labor (IYF, 2013).
The ICT sector had a significant growth before the revolution; direct employment in the ICT sector grew by 19% between 2006 and 2009 (MCIT 2009), making an annual average of 6.89% between 2007 and 2011 (MCIT 2012). It is an area for high demand for employment, especially in the nontechnical vocations such as call center agents, computer and mobile maintenance. The food and beverage sector remains to be a key area for growth due to its labor intensive focus. Although the manufacturing sector is facing many obstacles, but it is considered to be one of the main sectors, it is recognized to be a major potential growth engine for the economy with rising shares of exportable products, and it is expected to recover soon (IYF, 2013), manufacturing exports around 39% of all exports in Egypt in 2013.
The Demand Side:
The study conducted by International Youth Foundation indicated that the mismatch between labor demand and supply remains a major problem. Companies are in need for qualified and skilled employees, while the job seekers remain unable to meet the employers’ needs (IYF, 2013). Closing these gaps is an urgent and critical challenge for Egypt’s economic sectors. There is unmet demand for wide range of workers starting from skilled professions such as mechanics, welders, electricians, and maintenance personnel to semi skill jobs such as packagers, drivers, quality assurance agents, production line workers and customer service personnel. Technical training needs a familiar refrain from public reports and policy recommendations aimed at addressing Egypt’s youth unemployment problem is the call for targeted reform of basic education and Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) (ILO, Global Employment; ILO, Youth employment).
According to CAPMAS report on employment in 2016, it was found that, the highest employability sector in the Agricultural sector with 27.55%, followed by the construction sector with 11.28%, then the Whole and retail sale of vehicles, motorcycles repairing sector with11.17%, followed by manufacturing sector 11.14%.
Figure 2. 17 Employment per economic activities, Source: CAPMAS 2016
It is worthy to note that the industrial section in the technical education contains manufacturing, construction, Electric, gas, steam, air condition supplies, and food industry. These sectors represent 25.6% of the employment with 6.22m employees, in addition to the informal sector in these specializations. Due to this importance, the Industrial education was selected for this study.
The Supply Side
Due to the Egyptian weak education system, the mismatch in demand and supply in the labor market is rooted. Accordingly, the youth faces significant challenges in finding proper job opportunities.
Although, the education system in Egypt is inefficient, still it is important to give its graduates basic skills in addition to certification which is important to their competitiveness in the labor market. On the other hand, Job training programs play an important role in filling the skills gap in employment preparation; Training can overcome the missing skills and competencies for the education system graduates.
Shortage in labor market information is a major obstacle in identifying potential employers or employing opportunities; job seekers are facing difficulties in finding information about job opportunities, the required skills in the labor market and how to obtain the required skills.
2.2. The Effect of Job Mismatches on the Labor Market
‘The transition from school to work is often regarded as a ‘rite of passage’ in which young people are introduced to the world of labor. This transition process takes place in stages and it is characterized as a turbulent and uncertain period’ (Kerckhoff, 2000).
The education system graduates compete in the labor market on the available jobs. The lack of work experience is a main obstacle against joining the labor market. In addition to the problem of joining jobs that do not match their educational qualifications. This problem of mismatch could be due to the lack of labor market information, or due to the shortage of information about the education system and the qualifications it offers. ‘Logan (1996) refers to this as a two-sided matching game. By retraining the graduates or restructuring jobs, school-leavers and employers attempt to achieve a better job match. Job mismatches can thus be considered as a temporary position that allows a transition to a better one’ (El-Hamidi, March 2009).
It is obvious that education has a very important role in the job mismatch. On the other hand, companies have a role in qualifying their labor through training, which can be used to overcome the skills mismatch. But this means more costs which create a burden for them.
Another problem the graduates of the vocational education must face is finding a job that matches their qualifications; do the graduates have specific skills or they have general skills. where specific skills will increase the match between the graduates’ qualifications and for a narrow range of jobs this job requirements, with the risk that the graduates find vacancies. While in case of general skills can increase the rage of jobs they can find, but increase the mismatch for the jobs. The TVET system need to compromise between these two methods to create a combination that works with the labor market.
Also, there is the problem of over education; the level of education obtained by graduates affects their chances for finding a job. The oversupply of highly educated graduates can lead to down grading them in the labor market, which leads them to compete with less educated ones. This means that the less educated graduates will look for lower job levels, and so on.
‘Empirical results suggest that individuals working in jobs for which a lower level of education is required than actually obtained (i.e. overeducated persons) earn less than individuals with fitting employment’ (Van De., 2001). Simply, this means that, graduates who work in their field of education have higher income than those working outside their field of education’.
The mismatch between the educational system and the labor market increases the unemployment rate due to not satisfying the labor market requirements. The companies overcome this problem through training of their labor.
2.3. Unemployment
There are many factors that affect the unemployment. Research shows that demographic factors, in particular age, groups ,sizes, economic performance, skills level, and demand contribute in determining youth employment (Korenman and Neumark 2000; Blanchflower and Freeman 2000; Garcia and Fares 2008c).
The demographic factors on the one hand and labor market institutions on the other in addition to economic performance create the labor market models (Costanza B. & Werner E., Oct 2012):
1. The demographic structure, as the size of young people, determines the young people’s labor supply.
2. Labor market demand patterns which are affected by the structure of the economy and the economic development and growth rate.
3. Labor market flexibility, as determined by permanent verses temporary jobs, minimum wages and employment protection.
4. The preparation of young people for work through education and training, affected by the education system as general education, Technical Education, vocational training.
5. Active labor market policies and programs designed to engage the job seekers with the labor market, in particular those who failed to complete their education.
All these factors interact with each other to create particular patterns of youth employment or unemployment.
This means that TVET system is only one factor in a multifactorial model that affects the labor market. ‘As inefficiently regulated labor markets and restricted labor demand are unable to absorb the massive supply of labor’ (Assad and Roudi-Fahimi 2007).  The mismatch between the skills provided by the education system and the skills required by the labor market hinders the participation of youth in the labor market.  In general, the high population growth creates a significant pressure on the labor market; youth aged 15 to29 are forming more than 39% of the Egyptian population, this plays a significant pressure on the labor market with more than 850,000 new entrants per year (CAPMAS, 2016). As neither the public nor the private sectors can absorb all these large number, many job seekers join the informal sector, while others choose to emigrate, or to wait for a job.
Figure 2. 18 Labor classification according to age groups, Source: CAPMAS, 2016
During the last few decades, the Education and the TVET system have been developed to some extent; a lot of projects were developed to improve its performance. Although, the TVET is facing a lot of problems, but it is worthy to note that there are several developing projects that are running now for developing the TVET system and the labor market efficiency, as TVET Reform II, WISE project, and others.
That is why, this paper is concerned with the planning in Technical Education to evaluate its performance, as the unemployment is affected by so many factors where education is one factor among them.
2.10. Industrial Education
The technical education is classified into 3 main specializations which are Industrial, Agricultural, Commercial education; the commercial education is divided into commercial and tourism education.
Figure 2. 19 TE students according to specialization, Source: MoE yearly book 2016
The biggest among them is the industrial education with 49% of the students.
Figure 2. 20 Industrial Education Students, Source: MoE yearly book 2016
The Industrial education is classified into different specializations:
1. Mechanical (divided into 6 vocations)
2. Electrical (divided into 3 vocations)
3. Marines (divided into 3 vocations)
4. Vehicles (divided into 3 vocations)
5. Construction (divided into 4 vocations)
6. Cooling and Air Conditions
7. Metal work (divided into 3 vocations)
8. Carpentry (divided into 4 vocations)
9. Decoration (divided into 5 vocations)
10. Textiles (divided into 5 vocations)
Each specialization into vocations with a total of 37 vocations.
The Industrial Education runs 1090 school allover Egypt, the highest governorate in the numbers of schools is Dakahlia governorate with 126 schools followed by Cairo with 104 schools, then Albehara governorate with 79 schools, while the least governorate is South of Sinaa governorate with 6 schools.
There are 95,531 teachers in the industrial education serving more than 843 thousand students.
Considering that the scholastic year is about 34 weeks, removing the exams only 30 weeks remains, with 45 lectures a week. Their subjects are divided into general subjects and technical subjects. The general subjects’ lectures are 19 lecture per week in the 1st year, 14 lecture per week in the 2nd year and 14 lecture per week in the 3rd year. The technical subjects is divided into theoretical and practical, the students have 10 theoretical lectures per week in the 1st year and 14 per week in the 2nd year and 14 per week in the 3rd year; the practical lectures are divided to 16 per week in the 1st year, 16 per week in the 2nd year and 16 per week in the 3rd year. This means that the students have 480 practical lectures each year. Taking into consideration that the lecture is 45 minutes, this means that the students have about 360 hours of practical training each year. So the total practical training is about 1000 hours of practical training in the 3 years. This looks quite big, but as a matter of fact it is only around 135 days of training or about 6 month training.
Figure 2. 21 Sessions classifications in Industrial Education, Source: MoE
Taking into consideration the number of students in the workshop, the availability of equipment, tools, and materials, it will be clear that the practical training is quite short for the amount of skills that are required to be acquired, and the students can’t master the skills required to be able to work in this fields, it is just enough for them to get the knowledge not know the skills.
This means that, for the graduates of the industrial education in Egypt, qualifications are matter of question.
Another aspect needed to be considered is the geographical distribution of the schools and its relation to the economic activities in each region. Unfortunately, there is no enough data for this analysis, especially, it is hard to find a map for the economies activities distribution in Egypt. But this is some indicators that can be used as; in upper Egypt, there is the vocation for cooling and air conditioners for girls, where the graduates can’t find a job opportunity. On the other hand, the quarries vocation and marble vocation are found only in one school allover Egypt in Aswan. This means that the distribution of the schools according to the economic activities is also a matter of question.