SEKEM’s Vocational Training Centre (VTC) enables teenagers, to learn a trade, including mechanics, plumbing, ready-made garment production, carpentry, general administration, electronic technology, photovoltaic installation and maintenance, as well as agriculture machinery mechanics and organic agriculture. Now, a further training branch is to be added soon, which will teach young people the important technical skills for dealing with information technology.
To determine the possibilities of offering an IT-related education, the DeVilag Service Office and SEKEM Development Foundation invited Mona Ayoub, Head of the Vocational Education and Training Department at the DEinternational German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce, to extend the current partnership. Especially cooperation in the area of curriculum development, training for students at the VTC and quality assurance were on the agenda.
SEKEM School director Gamal Sayyed and Dr. Sigward von Laue welcomed Mona Ayoub at the guesthouse’s reception area, where they discussed the challenges of the dual vocational education in Egypt, the impact of developing new curricula and how this will reflect on the society. This was followed by a tour at the farm, where Mona Ayoub was introduced to the way, SEKEM implements its vision and goals in the SEKEM Schools, vocational workshops, cultural venues including the theater, and social institutions including the Medical Centre.
At the end of the tour, Mona Ayoub and Gamal Sayyed further discussed the possibility to assure the quality of the training programs for students, accompanied by a certificate from the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce, to measure their skills as well as the development of the curriculum, and provide eternal examiners to review the students’ projects on both practical and theoretical standard. It was agreed to build on the successful visit by further strengthening cooperation beyond Technical and Vocational Education Training scheme (TVET).
Dalia Mohamed