H.E. Dr. Tarek Shawki, Egyptian Minister of Education and Technical Education and H.E. Mr. Pekka Kosonen, Ambassador of Finland in Egypt witnessed yesterday the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Nahdet Misr Group (NMG), Egypt and Omnia Education Partnerships (OEP), Finland. The memorandum of understanding officiates the strategic partnership to develop and retain skilled workforce in several sectors. The partnership utilizes leading edge digital solutions such as AI-based virtual assessment and smart digital learning environments to train and assess workforce competence. These training solutions promote high quality without foregoing scalability. Partnership projects will focus especially on supporting green and blue transition in sectors such as energy, construction, ICT, logistics, tourism, health and agriculture.
The current COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated change in many industries; education and training are no exception. Green solutions and know-how are in rising global demand, putting pressure on companies to develop sustainable solutions and up-skilling employees accordingly. The NMG – OEP partnership offers solutions supporting individuals and companies facing this new reality.
“This is a milestone in our continued commitment towards quality education.” Dalia Ibrahim, CEO of Nahdet Misr Publishing, stated, “Ta’heal’s vision is to build skills that drive results while creating an enabling environment for economic and social growth.”
“We are very excited about the partnership and foresee that together our two companies can make a strong impact on both vocational training and the greening of industries in Egypt and the whole region”, says Mervi Jansson, CEO of OEP.
The new partnership should successfully address the formidable unemployment challenge in MENA countries, turning the large and growing labour force into an asset. This requires ensuring refocus on education and training to reduce skills’ mismatches, enhance labour market flexibility and maintain sustainability.
For more than 80 years, Nahdet Misr Group has strived to empower people’s development and growth through acquiring valuable education, knowledge and skills; thus, enabling them to enjoy a lifelong learning journey. Nahdet Misr offers world-class integrated educational and cultural solutions including content and curricula development, digital learning solutions, educational software and publishing services. Ta’heal for VET Skills Excellence, is the latest venture established by Nahdet Misr Group to provide solutions to unemployment that are demand-driven to create a significant positive impact.
OEP has previous experience operating in Egypt. As a division of Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region, OEP implemented a highly successful twinning project in Egypt financed by the EU. As the consultancy and international training arm of four Finnish organizations, OEP has a successful track record training in countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine as well as consulting for UN organizations. OEP is currently also supporting the development of Centers of Vocational Excellence in several countries. OEP’s know-how is based on the Finnish vocational education and training system, a competency-based, hybrid model combining theory and practical training in versatile environments, offering paths for lifelong learning and upskilling, to tertiary education, and entrepreneurship. In Finland vocational qualifications are based on national level learning outcomes developed and constantly updated with industry.
