Integrating career services into technical education schools in Egypt

In Egypt, more than 600,000 graduates of technical education face strident challenges to find decent jobs in the labor market due to a prevalent disconnect between technical schools and private sector employers. This has led to a situation where technical schools graduate individuals who lack the 21st century skills and technical skills, market awareness, and tools to find jobs that align with their skills. The Units for Transition to Employment (UTEs) were first established in technical schools to bridge the gap with the labor market by offering targeted services to students and graduates including career guidance, entrepreneurship and innovation training, and internship and employment opportunities. Despite the great success and national will to roll-out the UTEs in technical schools across Egypt, the UTEs have always been challenged by the insufficient coordination and cohesion of their services that often results in a mismatch between the students’ study programs and their career paths. USAID/Workforce Egypt conducted a series of "Pause and Reflect" sessions with internal and external stakeholders in the technical education ecosystem in Egypt and discovered that the UTEs were perceived as service-centered and lacked centrality around technical education students. The adapted model of the UTEs, the Career Development Centers (CDC), addressed that challenge and is now implemented in 10 model technical schools, ensuring career interest assessments are an integral part of the student admission process. This will start as a student-focused and individual career counseling that delves into each student's performance across all aspects of school life: academic performance, work-based internships, capstone projects as well as arts and extra-curricular activities. Moreover, the CDC qualifies students to become Peer Helpers and extends the support service beyond the teachers and formal facilitators. The outcome of the CDC is a holistic, wraparound service package tailored to transform the competitiveness of technical education students.