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An Overview |
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The purpose of mainstreaming a gender perspective is to turn
consideration of the questions and special idiosyncrasies of
men and women into an integral dimension of institutional
policies and action, of planning, design and implementation,
of the monitoring and evaluation of strategies undertaken at
all levels by vocational training systems.
It implies visualizing and taking into account the obstacles
and limiting factors that on all dimensions of the training
process may hinder the access and occupational and personal
development of men and women.
This leads to implementing
concrete positive discrimination
actions making up for women's
negative head start, specially
in the case of less favored
women (poor, of low educational
level, women heading households,
teen-age mothers, etc.)
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Educational Status Of Women (Nassar
2003) |
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Despite the fact that Egypt
started public education for
girls from the mid nineteenth
century, female illiteracy in
Egypt is one of the highest in
the Middle East in comparison to
other countries especially the
Gulf countries, which just
started education of women in
the mid of this century.
A-Literacy rate indicates that
more than half of the females in
Egypt are illiterate in
comparison to almost one third
of the males. Female illiteracy
is related to poverty. As the
incidence of poverty is
relatively high in rural Upper
Egypt, female illiteracy is also
high in these areas to reach
76.7% vs. 21.6.4% in urban and
44.8% in rural areas (DHS2000).
B- The enrollment rate of women
from official data in basic
education is 96% for primary
education and 94% in preparatory
education with an insignificant
gender gap (Table 2). The
enrollment of women in secondary
education reaches only 68% in
2000/1. However census 1996
indicates that the percentage of
girls, who completed primary,
preparatory, secondary and
higher education did not exceed
14.9%, 6%, 25.2%, 1.4% at the
national level of all girls in
the age category of primary,
preparatory, secondary education
and higher education (Fergany,
N. 1995).
C- Significant regional
differences exist in the
educational status of women.
Apparently the status of women
in Upper Egypt is more
vulnerable than in Lower Egypt,
while women in urban
governorates are comparatively
in a better educational status
D- Significant female-male gaps
exist in the educational level.
E- Nevertheless females in
higher education tend to enter
traditionally female fields like
humanities, social sciences and
education.
G- The educational policy in
Egypt was regarded by many
analysts responsible for gender
discrimination.
H- Recent data on girls
education indicated, that girls
in wealthier families are more
educated and are more likely to
enter schools and universities
than girls in poorer families.
Many poor families cannot even
afford to send their children to
free public schools. (Barwadwi,
M. 1994)
I- Structural adjustment
policies also are negatively
affecting the education of girls
especially in poor families.
With the decrease in the
subsidies to education a public
expenditure on education to
public expenditure and as well
as to GDP witnessed a decline.
K- Finally one of the important
factors, that restricts the
choices of women's education is
the limited employment
opportunities for women, which
are concentrated in teaching,
social welfare and medicine.
After the application of the
structural adjustment program in
Egypt, it was widely expected
that women working in public
sectors would be the first
victims of the privatisation
policies (Asaad, R. 1998).
Retrenchment of public sector
employment encouraged new female
entrants to look at certain
sections of the private sector
as a substitute employer.
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Where
Do Girls Fit in Technical
Education? |
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A. An Overview of the Different Types of Technical
Education
The following table shows
the different kinds of training:
|
In
Service training |
Non formal training |
Training of Unemployed
graduates whose skills
are not relevant to
market demand |
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88
public companies, 67
Ministries and State
Authorities and a
multitude of private
companies for public
industries working in
the fields of
electronics, weaving and
spinning, textile,
transportation,
metallurgy, or skin
tanning, car mechanics,
general electricity,
welding, tools filling
and printer, spinning,
weaving, maintenance of
mechanical equipment,
metal casting, industry
of shoes, furniture
carpentry are offering
in service training to
new employees or to
upgrade existing
workforce |
“Vocational Centers
supporting vulnerable
groups and drop outs
from the education
system are usually
affiliated with the
Ministry of Social
Affairs, the Ministry of
Agriculture, Ministry of
Land Reclamation, the
Central Youth
Organization, or NGOs.
There are about 3468
VTCs and sites in the
country offering,
"social production
training" of different
duration.
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The
Employment and
Retraining Program (ERP)
at SFD was established
to mitigate the effects
of Egypt's ERSAP as a
mechanism to formulate
and finance projects
that can assist in the
redeployment of
redundant workers.
In addition, the ERP is
upgrading the
infrastructure of
several training centers
and identifying the
skills in demand in the
labor market as well in
addition to a the
establishment of
National Vocational
Qualifications".
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B. Dual Education |
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The main objective of dual
training systems is developing
demand‑oriented-qualified skills
to the industry, small and micro
businesses, trade and services.
This initiative was agreed upon
at highest political level and
became operational in 1994. The
system has two major components
(Mubarak- Kohl-Initiative,
German Advisory Team, GTZ-PPIU,
April 2002):
1. A Project Policy
Implementation Unit (PPIU)
2. The Pilot Projects of:
• Dual Vocational Education and
Training in 10th of Ramadan City
• Dual Vocational Education and
Training in 6th of October City
• Dual Vocational Education and
Training in Sadat City
• Dual Vocational Education and
Training of Nurses
This system is based on a
participatory approach and
co-financing between government,
companies and the German side.
The Ministry of Education (MoE)
provides the qualified
instructors, covers all running
costs and salaries of the
Egyptian personal involved,
adopts the theoretical part of
training and participates in the
practical examinations and
approves the certificates.
The Investors' Associations
contract the trainees for
training in factories, take over
the costs of the establishment
of the Regional Unit of the Dual
System (RUDS) participate in
choosing the needed trades,
formulate the corresponding
curricula and participate in the
practical examinations.
The German Technical Cooperation
(GTZ), on behalf of the German
Federal Ministry of
International Cooperation and
Development (BMZ) provides long
and short term experts, supplies
the TSS by training and teaching
ware, participates in
establishing the Regional Units
(RUDS) andtrain Egyptian
teachers, instructors and
trainers either in or outside
Egypt.
Trades applied now are 9 trades
namely: Industrial mechanics,
Industrial electronics,
Ready-made garments, Automotive
and heavy machinery, Nursing,
Textile, Leather products,
Technician for electrical
installations, Sanitary and gas
installations (Table 7).
The project has developed
occupational profiles for three
vocations in the textile
industry ("clothing
construction", "finishing"
"tailoring”). The system is a
participatory system. Upon
completion of the first year of
basic training the participants
agree individually with the
employers, which specialization
and step of the training
program, they wish to attain in
the future.
Other projects, which follow
dual models of training and
cooperate with the PPIU are the
"Heavy Machinery Training
Center"/TOMOHAR (training of
mechanics for heavy vehicles)
and the "Training of Power
Station Personnel" (training of
power plant electricians and
mechanics).
Meanwhile the Training Center
for Automation Engineering (TCAE)/Ministry
of Industries currently offers 2
year vocational training courses
for "technicians for automated
systems" and "technicians for
process automation" for 100
(male) trainees.
This project provided us with
the mechanism to evaluate its
progress by its annual
monitoring reports. In an
attempt to evaluate the impact
of the dual system in technical
education of Mobarek Kohl
system, it was mentioned that
there are 4 main different
groups of graduates with respect
to employment and continuing
higher education (Mubarak-
Kohl-Initiative, German Advisory
Team, GTZ-PPIU, April 2002):
1. Graduates that are working
only.
2. Graduates that are working
and continuing higher education.
3. Graduates that are continuing
higher education only.
4. Graduates that are neither
working nor continuing higher
education.
Relatively low employment rate:
In general the employment rate
is 31%, which means that 69% of
the graduates are not working.
The main reason for not working
is the willingness to continue
higher education, which is
mentioned by around 40% of them,
to improve their scientific and
social level to enable them to
find a better job in the future.
Another major reason was
military services. It is
important to mention that for
those who have worked, the
timeframe for finding a job was
reasonable. 27% of the working
graduates worked immediately
after graduation, while around
40% of them found a job in the
period between one to three
months, which is quite a
reasonable percentage in the
current Egyptian working
environment. Even those who
didn’t start work in the first
three months were searching for
better offers.
Willingness to continue higher
education still exists: the dual
education monitoring report of
the year 2000 shows a decline in
the number of those continuing
higher education from 40% in the
sample to 31% in 1999, which
indicates a progress in the
project's objectives to prepare
graduates of secondary education
to enter the labor market
directly. Unfortunately, the
number of nonworking graduates
has increased from 18% among the
sample of 1999 to 34% in 2000,
which caused an increase in the
number of neither working nor
studying graduates.
50% of the graduates, who are
not working are still looking
for a job. 20% of those who are
continuing higher education have
an agreement with the company,
in which they were trained to
work in it after finishing their
higher education. Meanwhile
almost half of the graduates,
who are continuing higher
education believe that they were
well prepared for university /
college, while only 12% of them
believed they were not. The main
universities and colleges which
graduates joined after
graduation are technical
vocational institute, the
faculty of industrial education
and the labor university.
It has been also been proven
that there is a relation between
the level of financial
dependency and continuing higher
education. The higher the
financial dependency is, the
more graduates are inclined to
continue higher education and
vice versa.
Continuous links with the
training company: About 29% of
the employed graduates work in
the same company where they have
been trained, which equals to 9%
of all the graduates in the
sample of 2000.
Relatively high material reward:
Almost 75% earn between LE101
and LE300, while 13% of them
earn more than LE400. Almost
half of the latter categories
work in technical fields. 11% of
the working graduates earn less
than LE100 as they are working
on a part-time basis. There is a
weak association between the
specialization of the graduates
and the salary that they get.
Satisfaction with the quality of
education varies: The students
were found satisfied with the
technical equipments at the
schools as well as the
qualifications of the teachers.
The dual character of the MKI-training
system was found very useful by
almost half of the graduates and
useful by almost 30%. Around 20%
are not really convinced of the
system. As expressed by the
graduates more guidance needs to
be given to the trainees during
training and almost one third of
them expressed their
dissatisfaction. It was also
indicated, that the practical
part of training is more
relevant to the needs of the
labor market rather than the
theoretical part.
With respect to the experience
obtained: More than 60 % of the
graduates believe that their
training is relevant to the
labor market needs. Still
guidance in application is
needed A question was asked to
the graduates about what would
be the process, if they had to
operate a machine similar to
that on which they worked
before, but not the same. Almost
43% of the graduates mentioned
they would first look at the
manual, fully applying what they
had learned during their
education.
Finally with respect to
expectation from training: One
third of the graduates had their
expectations with education
unfulfilled. Unfulfilled
expectations were mainly due to
the following reasons:
• Unavailability of a job after
graduation in the same
specialization and especially in
the same company where they were
trained.
• Inability to join the Faculty
of Engineering.
• Promises to travel to Germany
were not kept .
• Bad or low quality of training
in the companies.
• Training in the companies was
not in the same specialization
(Mubarak- Kohl-Initiative,
German Advisory Team, GTZ-PPIU,
April 2002)
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C. Girls in Technical Education |
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Gender specific policies
restrict females access to
certain types of secondary
vocational schooling. These
policies are based on a belief
of gender differences in the
female/male educational and
occupational opportunities. Thus
educational policies in general
tended to emphasize vocational
training for boys in the main
areas of this kind of education.
Girls in vocational training
usually are used to study
traditional female's subjects
like dressmaking, art, ceramic,
and childcare.
However inadequate vocational
training for women placed them
in a subordinate position in the
labor market especially after
ERSAP and the attempt to release
some workers from the public
sector and retrain them.
Females in secondary education
are concentrated in commercial
education, general secondary
education rather than vocational
training. This is a natural
consequence of some prevailing
norms in the society relating
this kind of education with
career. In addition general
education is considered the
appropriate education for girls.
Enrollment of relatively more
males in Egypt in vocational
training is a result of the
division of education by sex as
well as the low status of
vocational education. The
division of education is
indicating the social
perspective that a woman's place
is at home (Sanabary, N.1993).
The extent of which girls and
young women participate in
technical and vocational
training programs aimed at
employable skills is difficult
to asses.
Moreover available information
of training programs is often
not raised by gender and studies
into vocational training issues
have hardly dealt with women's
participation.
Female enrolment in the General
Secondary Stage, Industrial,
Agricultural and Commercial
Secondary reaches 50.9%, 34.4%,
21.2% and 62.3% respectively, of
total pupils enrolled (Table8).
The enrollment rate of girls in
Commercial Industrial and
Agriculture public Secondary
Schools was 62%, 34.43% and
15.8%, respectively. The
enrollment rate of girls in
Commercial Industrial and
Agriculture private secondary
schools was 46.85%, 54.42%, 27%
and 57.65%, respectively
(Table9). Graduates mainly hope
for employment in administrative
and clerical occupations in
government and public sector
enterprises. Girls in Industrial
Secondary Schools accounted for
35% per cent (total grades 3 and
5), and in Agricultural
Secondary Schools for only 21%
per cent, indicating that gender
gaps present themselves more
strongly in technical and
vocational training. As a result
girls are usually confined to
sectors, which are more
vulnerable to retrenchment in
case of economic crisis.
Girls’ enrolment in Industrial
Technical Schools (grade 3) was
31.8 per cent in grade 3, and
only 15 per cent in grade 5. The
success rates after completion
of the 5year cycle are
relatively higher on average for
girls (99.5 per cent on average)
than for boys (98 per cent).
Training is provided in a
variety of subjects: metal
processing, machine engineering,
electrical engineering,
electronics, building and
construction, chemistry and
textiles.
Dual education is one of the
areas, which recently is
absorbing an increasing ratio of
females. The Mobarek Kohl
Project’s monitoring report
reveals several points regarding
females’ in technical education
(Mubarak- Kohl-Initiative,
German Advisory Team, GTZ-PPIU,
April 2002):
The percentage of girls does not
exceed 13% of the 215 graduates
in the 4 projects. More than 50%
of the sample in year 2000
graduated from Industrial
Mechanics and Industrial
Electronics. Almost half of the
graduates of the Ready Made
Garments were females.
The employment rate is higher
for females rather than males
(40.7% vs. 29.3%). The reason in
the difference in this ratio is
the obligation of male students
to finish their military
service.
12% of those graduates
continuing higher education are
females. The percentage of
graduates that continue higher
education among males is almost
the same as among females.
A quarter of the females who are
not working are either married
or their families did not allow
them to work.
Although it could not be proven
that the salary differs between
male and female graduates, none
of the working females
interviewed earned more than
L.E.300, while around 20% of the
working male graduates earned
more than this amount.
With the exception of the
"Training of Nurses" and "
Literacy and Adult Education
Project" there is no other
German initiative in the TEVT
sector, which caters for female
target groups to a significant
extent. Training programs also
include short-term modular
upgrading courses, which seem
more appropriate for women's
training needs than long-term
vocational training. Female’s
enrolment in the Training Center
for Automation Engineering (TCAE)/Ministry
of Industry (TCAE) programs in
1997 was around 11 per cent,
limited to PC application, while
integration of women in the
mainstream technical training
has not taken place.
In general Mobarek Kohl project
is trying to promote young women
in non-traditional technical
areas, such as industrial
mechanics and industrial
electronics. No evaluation is
available for these attempts.
A positive action in this
project is the establishment of
a Unit to be responsible for
monitoring and evaluation of the
progress of female participation
at all levels and to carry the
needed action oriented research.
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Challenges facing Technical Education |
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A. From the Technical Point of View |
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Secondary
education system face many
problems:
• An imbalance between general
secondary education, which
represented only 30% enrollment,
compared to the vocational
secondary education 70%
• A poor quality and relevance
of education.
• The evaluation system is
inadequate.
• Shortages in qualified
teachers and instructors;
outdated programs, outdated
curricula, training material and
teaching methods; and lack of
flexibility and failure to
adjust in the face of increasing
modernity, new technological
developments, emerging new
occupations and changing
existing occupational and job
profiles, lack of an
accreditation and certification
system and high drop outs
(Radwan, S. 1997)
• Graduates from the education
system did not have the skills
and knowledge needed to thrive
in the global markets.
• A deficient national training
information system.
• Inadequate national policies
considering the involvement of
private business, employers
associations and trade unions.
• The absence of a national
skill standard and trade testing
system.
• The lack of a training needs
assessments.
• Lack of willingness to finance
training from the government and
the companies.
• Lack of flexibility and
failure to adjust in the face of
increasing modernity, new
technological developments,
emerging new occupations and
changing existing occupational
and job profiles”. (Radwan,
S.1997)
• Uncoordinated and independent
training activities, programs,
centers and initiatives.
• Underutilization of training
structures and facilities.
• Fragmentation and overlapping
of training efforts in Egypt led
all to an inefficient training
system.
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B. From the Social Point of View |
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Secondary education in
general and technical education
in particular has several
drawbacks from the societal
point of view:
First: This kind of
education does not improve the
average graduate's job
opportunities. Rates of
unemployment are highest for
those with intermediate
education, next highest for
graduates of higher education
and lowest for those with no
education. The ratio of
unemployed secondary school
certificate holders increased
from 25.2 per cent in 1986 (CAPMAS,
Population Census 86) to 70.2
per cent in 1999, (CAPMAS, Labor
Force Sample Survey 99), while
unemployment stood at 18.6 per
cent with university and higher
education graduates (Table 10).
Second: Intermediate
education does not yet produce
marketable skills and does not
necessarily improve the earning
prospects since wage rates for
graduates of this kind of
education is low. Hence many
parents admit to the fact that
education is a pre requisite for
girls to acquire gainful work,
while boys can do without
because they may find a
technical job in spite of poor
education.
Third: Prevailing
tradition and norms in Egypt are
a main challenge against
increasing the efficiency of
training. Technical and
vocational education is regarded
as second best education.
Training institutes tend to
cater, those who have dropped
out of the education system for
academic reasons. Hence the
characteristics of the society
are one of the main problems
that influence HRD in Egypt as
well as its incentive system.
The ideas prevailing for
technical education in Egypt
resulted in a low profile
institutional setup for HRD in
Egypt. Moreover Egyptians
graduates hold obsolete ideas
about the importance of
governmental work to enjoy
social status and security.
Moreover the high prestige of
tertiary education allows women
also to enter non-traditional
technical domains such as
engineering, science and
medicine. A university degree
imparts status to its owner
regardless, whether the degree
ensures a job. Meanwhile higher
education was coupled with
employment in the sixties and
seventies. Female teachers,
nurses, medical doctors and
engineers are working into
management positions, which is
not the case for graduates of
technical education.
Young female mechanics and
electrical technicians who
undergo dual training under MKI
projects strive for higher
education after completion of
their training, as becoming an
engineer certainly would enhance
professional career and will
break social barriers.
Fourth: Employers are
primarily interested in short
term training programs which
direct trainees back to the
workplace rather than that kind
of training allowing into higher
levels of the education system.
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(Elvira Ganter, 1997) Challenges Facing Women in
Technical Education
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1) Conflicting roles and strong
preference to stay at home after
marriage. Depending on several
research results most women in
Egypt work out of financial
reasons and not for
self-independence. They spend
their money on personal and
family expenses, and on their
upcoming marriage expenses. To
improve their social status,
they either want to continue
their higher education or marry.
Vocational and technical
training is regarded as
redundant and time consuming.
This attitude is intensified by
the lack of career options for
girls in technical fields and
the unwillingness to continue to
work under the prevailing
conditions after their marriage
due to long working hours,
inefficient formal nursing
system as well as conflict in
roles.
2) Occupational Segregation:
There is a general consensus,
that all types of jobs that
require precision and patience
and do not involve "heavy" labor
are considered appropriate for
women, while handling of heavy
machinery, physically demanding
work, repair and maintenance of
equipment is preferably done by
men. This is due to the
widespread belief that
physically, women are not able
to cope with the hard working
conditions in factories and
repair workshops. Hence female
workers in private industries in
Egypt are engaged in assembly
line production, packaging and
finishing of goods (textile,
shoe production, electronics and
pharmaceutical industries).
But for technicians and
maintenance staff, employers
prefer male technicians, as it
is assumed that this kind of
operations requires over hour or
shift work, while women in
general prefer occupations, with
regular and short working hours
and work places close to their
homes due to their several
conflicting roles. Moreover many
in company trainers are senior
male workers and maintain
conventional attitudes towards
women’s training. Curricula have
tended to be interpreted
accordingly, which caused a
constraint against applying
modern teaching methods.
3) High staff fluctuation due to
social commitment for women
trainees: Employers are
reluctant to invest in training
of women, since working
conditions and social
constraints produce high
fluctuation rates. This
phenomenon is widespread among
factories located in poor urban
or in rural areas, where women
have other means to supplement
income. If women’s necessities
may be satisfied through other
means, women would stop
employment outside their houses.
Hence employers favor ad hoc
training on-the job for females
rather than regular training,
which are expensive, time
consuming and does not yield its
reward.
4) Limited employment
opportunities for graduates of
technical education and high
unemployment rates: As seen from
table 10 graduates from
commercial secondary education
are suffering from the highest
unemployment rate in the
Egyptian labor market (for
females (73.45%). This is the
main challenge facing women in
technical education, as they are
concentrated in that type of
education, which does not
correspond to the market needs
whether in quality or quantity.
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