European Union in Egypt is supporting Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Phase II in Egypt. Phase I “Support to the Reform of TVET in Egypt” started in 2005 and ended in 2012-2013. It had a budget of Eur 66 million and provided the basic strategic framework for reform of TVET in Egypt. TVET II should build on the following challenges identified in the course of TVET I:

• One of the fundamental challenges of Phase I is how to mainstream successful implemented pilots in the Egyptian system;
• How to create informed and sustainable partnership with the private sector; and
• Lack of coherent strategy and policies reforms that unify decisions from the Egyptian government thus avoiding institutional fragmentation and the slow pace of implementing reforms

Under TVET Phase I a mechanism for increased involvement of the private sector was established. This entailed the development of so-called enterprise and training partnerships (ETPs). TVET II seeks to integrate these ETPs within the new governance structures of the ministry of education in order to ensure continuation and scale-up of thier mandates.

EuropeAid is currently calling for applications for Phase II, which is aimed at improving the structure and performance of the TVET system in Egypt in order to firstly, capacitate important stakeholders in the field of education to better respond to Egypt's new socio-economic needs; and secondly, to boost the employability of youth and increase the country's competitiveness. The following three components and sub-components have been identified by European Union:

Consequently, the approach taken by EuropeAid is a very comprehensive and all-encompassing one with an expected impact on the government, schools/institutions and the population at large, particularly youth. In addition, the amount of money invested in TVET in the Egyptian context reveals the importance attributed to it: Over the next 30 months EuropeAid will invest Eur 20,550,000 in the above mentioned technical assistance packages distributed across 5 projects.

If your organization is interested in working with EuropeAid it is essential to keep in mind that initial filtering of suitable applicants is based on the applicant’s capacities. Read more about the 5 tenders mentioned above, their technical scope and eligibility criteria by clicking on Tenders and Grants Tracker of DARPE web site. All submitting candidates will be evaluated against the following criteria based on which the shortlisted ones will be invited to submit a proposal for the specific project. In a nutshell, the eligibility technical and financial requirements include the following:

• Economic and financial capacity
  • Evaluation of the applicant’s average annual turnover which must exceed the annualised maximum budget of the contract
  • Evaluation of the current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) in the last year must be min. 1
• Professional capacity
  • The expertise of the proposed staff members in the field of TVET, capacity building and technical assistance
  • Depending on the size of the contract it ranges from 8 to 40 staff members
• Technical capacity
  • Implementation of min. two contracts with a specific budget within the last three years (budget ranges from Eur 1,000,000 to Eur 3,500,000)
  • Implementation of min. two projects in the field of TVET
  • Implementation of min. one cooperation project in the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) South Region, including Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), Syria and Tunisia

In addition to present in detail the previous experience and thematic expertise that qualifies your organization to carry out the project(s), it is advisable to reach out to and engage with European firms who most probably have the required financial and technical expertise to be shortlisted. In similar projects 5-8 shortlisted consortiums are anticipated. Reaching out enables you to set up potential partnerships to jointly implement the projects presented above.

It is imporatnt to mention that there are other Development Aid Providers who are investing and funding to reform the Technical Education in Egypt among them is USAID. Read more about the USAID WISE project.

Did you know that DARPE provides a daily updated tracker of Development Assistance Tenders and Grants Opportunities in Egypt and the Middle East? The tenders published by EuropeAid are only 5 out of more than 60 opportunities open for applications at the moment. To find out more please join us.