Human resources development through

education and training

The aims of education and truin~ng are considered as related to the needs of the Iabour market in Egypt. The current failure of education and training to satisfy the requirements of industry, in terms of the quality and number of new employees, is discussed. Problems of the make up of the population and the labol~r force are considered, along with the inadequacy of the education system to keep up with technological change. An outline for a hun~an resources development policy is given, and realization and effective use of human resources is discussed.

Keywords: Iabour, education, Egypt, hu~~la~ resources development

In the international development strategy of the Second United Nations Development Decade, it was resolved that, ‘Every country has the right and duty to develop its human and natural resources’. It was also stated that, ‘As the ultimate purpose of development is to provide increasing opportunities to all people for a better life, it is essential to bring about a more equitable distribution of income and wealth for pro- moting both social justice and efficiency of production to raise substantially the level of employment, to expand and improve facilities for education.’

The problem is that education should become a permanent process designed to provide man not only with new skills to become a more effective agent of production but also with new tastes, aptitudes and

15 Abdel-Moncim Riad Street, Dokki, Gizn, Egypt This paper was presented at the 2nd Internati~)n~i Symposium of the Management Engineering Society (Egyptian Society of Engineers), Cairo, Egypt. 4-6 January 1987

interests with which to enrich his own life and that of the society in which he lives.

EGYPTIAN EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEMS

Education system

National economic and social development policies are dependent upon the continuing efforts of the formal and non-formal education and training systems in improving the quality and quantity of appropriately trained manpower to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the economy.

The education development strategy is directed towards meeting national needs, with the emphasis on:

138 0263-7863/~7/030138-06 $03.00 @ 1987 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd

an enrolment of the 6-14 age group in a nine-year compulsory stage, incorporating the current primary and preparatory levels (grades l-9), while upgrading and improving the quality and quantity of basic education teachers, improvements in quaiity and relevance of education in preparatory and genera1 secondary schools, through provision of upgraded science instruction, practical prevocational studies to enable more in- formed choices concerning secondary and post- secondary education and training; teacher education programmes are being oriented and reorganized accordingly, re-orienting the formal education and training systems, to meet manpower needs better through increasing technical secondary enrolments while slowing the enrolment in general secondary educa- tion, expanding and improving the skilled and semi-skilled labour force by increasing the quantity and quality of

Project Management

l

l

the annual outputs of industrial, construction, agri- culture and handicrafts skills training centres, to fill the gap created by the serious shortage of such workers; in recent years, twelve ministries have acquired their own training centres to provide skilled and semi-skilled workers in their specific fields, improving university instruction by reducing over- crowding in certain faculties and improving facilities, equipment and teacher capabilities, reduction of the high adult illiteracy level; the Ministry of Education intended, in 1978, to add about 1 400 classes annually to the existing illiteracy classes, which amounts to about 13 000; training is provided to the extent possible through functional literacy programmes linked with skill training.

Primary education Preparatory ze

Training system

The training programmes run by the ministries, as mentioned above, are as follows.

o The Ministry of Industry provides the industrial sector (both public and private) with the required manpower. The Productivity and Vocational Training Department (PVTD) of the Ministry of Industry is the body responsible for training for the industrial sector. It introduced the modern apprenticeship system in 1956, with the assistance of the Tnter- national Labour Organization (ILO). The apprenticeship programme of the PVTD is a long- term training system lasting 3-4 years, of which the first year is spent in the training centre for practical

Training centres

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1 VlOSA Handicraft)

-raining centrs AOHRNC 10 month :ourse)

Secondary --------t

Higher and technical f w

Universities

Technician training (industry/commerce)

Primary teacher training

I

I MOH institutes I---i

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A Training centres MOI i 1

1 1 I

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Grade Jobs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a 9 10 11 12 13 14

6 7 a 9 IO 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 -+ 22123

Age

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workshop instruction and theoretical studies, follow- ed by 2-3 years on-the-job training. Holders of the preparatory certificate are accepted in the centres after passing a medical and psychological test.

Besides this system, the PVTD runs two other systems, namely the accelerated training pro- gramme, providing courses of between four and six months confined to the training centres in order to qualify adults as semi-skilled workers.

The PVTD runs an upgrading training system to improve the skills of the existing workers in industry. The Ministries of Housing, Reconstruction and New Communities, and Land Reclamation, run training programmes geared to the requirements of construc- tion projects, intended to meet the demands for skilled and semi-skilled workers. The training courses are of six months duration for all trades, out of which four months are spent in the training centre and two months on-the-job training, thus enabling the training centre to run three courses a year. The centres accept applicants 15 years old or more, provided they can read and write. The Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) runs voca- tional training centres to provide training oppor- tunities for unemployed youth aged 14-25 years, who have not completed the compulsory stage education and who are unqualified for employment. The Ministry of Health (MOH) operates nursing schools and accepts for training those girls who successfully completed preparatory education with an attainment of 70% of the total marks. The courses are operated within hospitals having 200 beds and more. The course duration is three years. Other ministries run various courses to suit their requirements.

The structures of the education and formal training systems are shown in Figure 1.

CURRENT PROBLEMS

The principal current problems can be grouped under:

f

2

quantitative and qualitative inadequacy of facilities able to satisfy demand, the growing frustration with the quality of life among an increasing number of people, and with education and training systems which are not making the contribution expected of them.

Quantitative problems

The high birth rate, which is greater than that required to maintain a stable population, places a heavy burden on the education and training system. This problem resulted in subsequent problems in the education and training systems. There are not enough places for the group of population eligible for the basic education. It is estimated that there are places in the first year of basic education for only about 66%* of the population of age 6. This means that about a third of the population do not have the opportunity for formal training and consequently have no employment skills.

* These ratios are based on 1976 CC~SUS figures. An increase happened in the last 10 years

The ratio of people aged 15 enrolled in schools to the total population of 15 year olds is about 50%*. This means that more leakage of manpower from the education and training streams happens during basic education.

After the age of 15, the adult, according to his records in the preparatory examination, is directed to one of the following streams:

general secondary education, which is absorbing about 18% of the 16-18 age group, technical education, with its branches of industrial, commercial and agriculture, which is absorbing 20% of the 16-18 age group, teacher education, which is absorbing about 2% of the same age group, the training centres in 12 ministries, which absorb not more than 2% of the same age group. the labour market, families in rural areas where the adult goes back to work with the family in agriculture or related work.

This means that formal training and education places are available for about only 42% of the population in the 16-18 age group.

This waste in manpower shows the size of the quantitative problem on a national level. Solving such a problem is not so easy, as the solution will put a burden on the economy of the country, and so rationalization of the available manpower becomes a more effective solution.

Qualitative problems

Another and more serious pressure on the education and training systems is likely to stem from the acceler- ating rate of technological change. The problem is found in industrialized countries as well as developing countries, but it is more serious in developing countries as it is required to reduce the technological gap between them and the industrialized countries.

It has been estimated that the labour force of 1965 would be obsolete by the year 2000 unless retraining is undertaken on a previously unprecedented scale. There will be an increasing need to keep continually abreast with developments and acquire new skills in order to play an effective part in employment and in community.

This problem adds to the burden of education and training the need to install new equipment, to train teachers and instructors the new techniques, to accept strained financial resources, and possibly the need to interrupt employment more frequently for educational purposes.

This implies not only a complete new approach to the concept of education and training by the national authorities, but increasing pressure on individuals who will have to expect more frequent moves between types of employment.

The inadequate quality of education and training to meet labour market requirements is mostly affected by:

0 overcrowded schools due to rapidly increasing demand,

l classes being too big due to the increasing numbers accepted, the shortage of finance to build new schools, and the lack of teachers,

140 Project Managen~ent

8 under-training of teaching staff and instructors, who are also sometimes trained in haste,

l inadequate facilities, teaching and instructions resuit- ing in qualified people possessing inadequate stan- dards of knowledge and skill, and this in turn leads to disappointment and frustration to individuals when they are offered employment at a lower level than they expect.

Linked with the quality problem is the classical curricula followed in most of the education and training systems, which are not developed to suit technological and economic development, With few exceptions, the new universities are still following curricula from about 30 years ago. This is also true of some of the training institutes.

A social problem related to education and proper manpower planning is that traditions and cultural values are irrelevant to the needs of economic develop- ment. The curricula followed in the schools and universities reflect the past needs of society, when the highest respect was paid to university graduates. Although this attitude has changed in the past few years, it still exists to a certain extent, and is still one factor in overcrowding of faculties and imbalance in some faculties compared with the real needs of the iabour market. It is also a factor affecting manpower planning on a national level.

Ail these problems have resulted in a quantitative and qualitative shortage of the knowledge and skill needed for development, while unemployment and wasted talent exist among many miseducated university, secondary and primary school graduates.

Growing frustration and dissatisfaction

This problem is of a social and psychologicai nature and has serious implications for economic and social development. There are increased feelings of frustra- tion and dissatisfaction with the quality of life, parti- cularly among young people. The man~nitude of the problem increases with the progress of development. Those young people who are faced with unemployment, or who are offered low level employment, relate these situations to poor education and training, and to the gap that exists between the educators and the real needs of employers.

There is a great need for more contacts between educators and the “end users’ of their graduates, to be able to exchange views and satisfy the requirements of the employers, and to avoid wasting human resources.

Human resources development must enable greater participation of the youth in the development process.

Labour force

The figures of the Central Organ for Mobilization and Statistics show that the iabour force is about 27.8% of the total population (i.e. about 12 M), which is considered a low ratio.

The two main problems of rationalization of man- power are: how can we attract more people into labour, and where can they be trained to meet the market requirements.

First, a system will need to be established by which information is collected on the various occupations in

each region, the employment opportunities and their skill requirements. The results obtained should show the shortage or surplus in the various occupations. Based on these results, formal education and training systems will need to take into consideration the introduction of vocational guidance systems, offering services to adults in diagnosing their capabilities and motivation, and counselling them with respect to technical education and employment opportunities.

Second, account needs to be taken of existing technical education and formal training and their respective contribution to the level of skills accepted by employers. This will involve examining what short-term measures are required to upgrade skill development, and what long-term measures need be taken to improve the existing facilities covering teachers, instructors, equipment, buildings and budgeting.

An important issue is improving the quality of the education and training systems to make than more relevant to the country’s social and economic deveiop- ment needs.

Outputs and inputs

To ensure sustained growth of the economy, a sub- stantial amount of technical manpower is needed. Inadequacy of basic data makes accurate estimates of technical manpower requirements difficult, but the genera1 dimensions of the shortfall are indicated in Table 1. The last census figures (1976) concerning the iabour force compared with the economic active popul- ation and total population are shown in Table 2.

From the Table, it is shown that the iabour force is only 27.8% of the population. This ratio remained nearly the same between 1979 and 1982 as shown in Table 3.

Therefore, if we are able to train and attract to the labour force a higher ratio, say up to 35% of the population, the labour force will be increased by about 4M, which is about 30% of the existing labour force (taking into account that the average annual require- ment in some areas of economic activity is about 1.3M people). This, however, would need the expansion of the education and training system, which has places for only about 42% of the population in the l&18 age group.

Table 1. Estimated manpower requirements and supply 19761987” (excIuding migration)

Lcvcl and type

Average annual Annual requirements output

19x7 shortfall

T~~hnjcians Industrial Commercial

13 500 7 YOO 5 600 ! 1 400 1 1 600 f 200

surplus

Skillcd and scmiskillcd Construction Others excluding agriculture

29 700 I8 300 11 400

7 I 700 33 400 27 300

’ Source: World Bank rcporr

Vol 5 No 3 August 1987 141

Table 2. 1976 census figures concerning the labour force compared with the economic active population and total population

Economic active population (EAP)‘:’

Labour force Out of the labour force’ Total EAP’

Number Number Total working % unemployed % number “/0 Number % Number %

9 629 39X 26.4 523 966 1.4 10 153 364 27.8 13 552 287 37.1 23 705 651 64.9

Based on aec of 12 years and more ’ Including housewives. Ttudents enrolled in schools, training ccntres and universities, pensioners ’ The total population in 1976 was 36 510 849 and the differcncc between total population and EAP is the sum of those below age I2 and those

Table 3. Labour force as a percentage of the population

Labour force

Year

1979 1980 1981 1982

Population Total As % of (000s) (000s) population

40 918 I1 510 28.12 41 936 11 x13 28.16 43 010 12 124 28.18 44 058 12 437 28.23

provision of programmes and facilities for training of women, taking into account social attitudes and the place of women in the home and in the society, the employment patterns and employment opportunities, the importance of providing teaching staff for the different education and training systems, to ensure the qualitative needs of skill levels accepted by employers, consideration of human resources development needs as a continuous life-long process for which suitable programmes, organization and facilities must be planned and implemented.

NEED FOR A POLICY RATIONALIZING AND EFFECTIVE

The problems described earlier should identify the need for a coherent human resources development policy. This policy and its implementation should be the responsibility of several ministries, as human resources are not the responsibility of one ministry. The complex questions of development would be spread mainly among the Ministries of Education, Higher Education, Labour and Training, Industry, Agriculture, Housing, Social Affairs, and the other ministries which have training centres or training schemes for their respective sectors of the economy. Moreover, there are public and private employing establishments which run their own in-house training schemes.

UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES

In such circumstances, it is difficult to undertake a comprehensive national plan and to prepare pro- grammes and budget for developing the required human resources in a coordinated and consolidated manner.

The proper utilization of human resources leads to the expansion of employment. With this in mind, rationalization of human resources becomes an integr- ated part of the overall concept of effective utilization of human resources. The concept of human resources development goes beyond education and training programmes: human resources development will have to focus more attention on the abilities and interests of the individuals. It will also determine which education and training programmes provide the best opportunities for these people to realize their maximum potential, so special emphasis should be placed on careful considera- tion of the talents, aspirations, attitudes and motivation of the individuals with respect to undertaking certain types of work or guiding others. Such an approach will not in any way hinder the supply of manpower required for the different sectors of the economy; on the contrary, it will help individuals to retrain in new occupations for which there is greater demand for manpower. It will also be an essential factor for the accelerating rate of technological change.

The policy should be based on the following:

the most economical use of all financial, material and human resources, irrespective of whose authority they may fall under, pre-employment education is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Educa- tion and Training, the employment being the respon- sibility of the Ministry of Labour and other ministries, balancing of the quantitative requirements with the qualitative needs of the level of skill for the different occupations, development of education and training capable of decreasing the technological gap between Egypt and the industrialized countries,

Rationalization on a national level should consider the following:

the presence of an effective information system that provides the necessary information on manpower and labour force, identification of the short fall and surplus, in numbers and occupations in the different sectors, provide contacts between the different sectors to exchange manpower surplus from one sector to another, more proper links between all concerned with educa-

142 Project Management

tion training, to avoid duplication and waste in manpower trained.

On the project level, other steps have to be taken to rationalize the human resources. such as:

employing people with the proper skills needed to do their jobs, training of new employees to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge needed for their jobs, pre-training of people on new techniques developed in the project, upgrading of all employees during their working life, through properly designed training courses, to ensure modernization of skills and knowledge owing to the rapid progress of technology.

RECENT HUMAN RESOURCES TECHNIQUES AND DEVELOPMENT

The choice of the techniques used for development is not an easy task. Each country has its own problems, its own capabilities to solve such problems and its own methods of approach. This should take into considera- tion its arrangements for planning and programming for human resources development. New techniques need to be studied carefully and selected to suit economic and social conditions, and should have the agreement of both employers and employees.

The planning and programming of human resources development will lead to the dilemma that, on one hand financial resources are becoming increasingly inadequate, and on the other hand there is a need for advanced techniques in education and training. The answer to this dilemma will be sought in three directions:

much more use of non-formal methods of education and training, more extensive use of modern techniques, more intensive use of facilities, use of modern mass-media communication tech- niques in the services of development; this will include use of education television, both broadcast and closed circuit, video, radio, films, programme learning materials, new types of courses and programmes, such as sandwich courses, second shift courses, weekend courses, refreshing courses, upgrading courses, etc.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following are some recommendations for nationalizing and developing human resources in

Egypt:

establishment of an up-to-date information system in respect of requirements by occupation and skill grade, employment opportunities and places avail- able to provide such requirements, the need for a more realistic policy in respect of numbers accepted in the various education and training streams compared with real requirements of the labour market, more linkage between the users of labour and the education and training authorities, the need for a continuous programme of training during the life-time of employees, efforts to attract more of the population into the labour market, the introduction of a guidance system, either within the education system or in the employment offices. to guide students in their choice of career and to direct job seekers to the relevant employment vacancies, introduction of new techniques in the education and training systems to raise the level of skills accepted by employers.

Since graduating wifh a HSc. from the Mechanical Depurtment of the Faculty of Engineering, and an MSc. in Industrial Engineering, both from Cairo IJniversity, Moufid Eiia Abdcl-Malek has occupied different posts in the Ministries of Communication and Industry, in Egypt. From 1980 io

1982. he was l3irector General of the ,~ini.~try of industry, resr)onsibie

for ind~~stri~l v~~cati~~i~al training on the rlutioriff~ level. After retire- ment, he wus assigned the posf of consultant to the Ministry of Industry, advising the Ministry on matters related to human resources

development und training. During

1967-1980. Mu Ahdel-Malek was assigned different posts with the International Lahour Organizution in Ethiopia. Ghana, Iraq and Bahrain, dltring which time he was acting as chief technical adviser. and vocational training planner responsihie for establishing human resources development units or vocational training projects.

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