1. All images © Mat Wright www.britishcouncil.org1 Skills for Employability Putting Employers at the centre of what we do UAE Advisory Forum 17th September 2013

2. www.britishcouncil.org2 Introduction

3. Our Perspective of Youth Employment www.britishcouncil.org3 Quality of Vocational Education Services Relevance of Education to Labour Market Skills for Employment and Enterprise Status of Vocational Education and Skills Training Employer Engagement

4. Our response, aims and approach www.britishcouncil.org4 Innovating Capacity building Profile raising Catalysing change Aligning skills development and employment opportunities Employability and enterprise Employer engagement Improving skills development At a system level At a teacher / learner level At an institution level Through Skills Interventions: Stakeholder engagement Policy Dialogues International Skills Partnerships Global and National Challenges Training & Resources www.britishcouncil.org

5. Putting employers at the heart of what we do www.britishcouncil.org5 Innovating Capacity building Profile raising Catalysing change Aligning skills development and employment opportunities Employability and enterprise Employer engagement Improving skills development At a system level At a teacher / learner level At an institution level Egypt: Apprenticeship / Training programme pilot Bahrain :National Occupational Standards Dialogues Egypt, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Tunisia, Yemen, Morocco : Education and Employer partnerships UAE : Be Entrepreneurial Partnership with InJaz Oman: : Careers Guidance development UK Seminar series: Employer Engagement and Apprenticeship Egypt & Tunisia: Changing perception of Skills Seminar Tunisia: Building Effective Employer Engagement UK Seminar series: Employer engagement and Apprenticeships Egypt: PETRA and ProSkills Egypt: SHELL: Take Off training programme Tunisia: AfDB: Sou k Attanmia Social Media & TV Global Enterprise Challenge Kuwait, Tunisia & Egypt : Training & support for business Policy dialogues Skills Partnerships Challenges Training / resources www.britishcouncil.org

6. Impact www.britishcouncil.org6

7. Quality of Vocational Education Services: Institution to system change www.britishcouncil.org7 7 Embedding Quality Assurance Educational Reform Developing Skills Competency Standards Across Leading Industry Sectors Montenegro and Bulgaria: New Quality Assurance model embedded in vocational education, quality standards raised to boost employability Yemen: Robust Quality Assurance system introduced into vocational colleges Romania: national occupational standards and relevant units of competency within the national qualifications developed and accredited in agri- and rural tourism to prepare young people for jobs. Pakistan: skills standards developed and validated across 11 sectors. I feel strongly that this kind of technical education contributes a lot to economic growth of Pakistan and would assist in increasing per capita income, which would make a major portion of population a useful one. Muhammad Sarwar Zahid, TVET Authority Pakistan. Yemen: development of Inspection framework, National Quality Skills Standards and Employer Engagement strategies.

8. Relevance of education to the labour market www.britishcouncil.org8 8 UAE : Sharjah Institute of Technology and NIVE partnerships : innovation in education through Work taster programmes, embedding entrepreneurial skills, Quality Assurance and international benchmarking. Capacity Building for teachers and students Industry-led curricula, learning outcomes based Cutting edge qualifications with international appeal New teaching and learning resources Modern teacher methodologies Algeria: The Catering Challenge was the first culinary competition organised in Algeria for apprentices of vocational training institutions specialised in catering. The media reach including TV and radio was over 10M and curriculum change in catering and hospitality. Egypt: Enterprise workshops and competition for over 700 young people. Media coverage on 6 TV channels and the radio reaching over 0.5M and resulted in curriculum changes in Tourism.

9. Employability skills www.britishcouncil.org9 9 Curricula Reform Institutional Changes Young People Equipped with Skills for Employability Systemic Change South Asia: 40 teams of young people trained and turned their innovative ideas into commercial ventures only in 2008 providing employment within local communities. BiH: A new training module for enterprise skills devised and embedded in the curricula of Economska Skola Bejelinja Be Entrepreneurial : Partnership with InJaz reached more the 780 students within 9 schools across 4 cites. Working with business 72 volunteers developing social entrepreneurship knowledge and skills. TVET governing body of Punjab has developed and introduced the first ever course in social entrepreneurship into all of their 165 colleges. Region: Across 5 countries last year we engaged 40 colleges, 5000 young people and 400 teachers in enterprise training and challenges. The Ministry of Education embed enterprise into annual activity for all colleges in Yemen and Libya from 2013.

10. Changing perceptions www.britishcouncil.org10 Changing Perceptions of Skills 55 radio programmes: 9 million young people across South Asia Social Media Engagement: Facebook Likes: 45,000, Friends of fans: 4,731,698. Global Challenge: 100,000 young people in one week TV Series in Egypt: 10 million audience

11. Employability research www.britishcouncil.org11 Research outcomes Insufficient jobs being created Shortage of high level technical skills Lack of work experience and realistic learning environments Education institutions not providing soft skills Impact of female participation on the labour market Qualifications not fitting with the current needs of the market

12. Our invention in youth employment www.britishcouncil.org12 Quality of Vocational Education Services Relevance of Education to Labour Market Skills for Employment and Enterprise Status of Vocational Education and Skills Training Employer Engagement

13. Apprenticeship case story www.britishcouncil.org13www.britishcouncil.org13 Systemic change: Employer Engagement Institutional level change: modernising training delivery Impact on young people: work-related experience

14. Way Forward www.britishcouncil.org14 Enhancing Youth Employment Enhancing Skills for Employment and Enterprise Embed enterprise education across curricula Provide a broad set of skills/knowledge Recognise other skills & experience Support & encourage young entrepreneurs Enhancing Quality of Vocational Education Services Build confidence in system Better qualifications recognised by employers Improve quality of delivery Clearer progression routes I mproving the Status of Skills Development Build understanding of job opportunities Build sustainable forums and social networking to engage young people Invest in communications campaigns Increasing the Relevance of Education to Labour Market Develop industry- led curricula and learning materials Integrate work experience opportunities in the curricula Better understanding of industry needs Increasing Effective Employer Engagement: Build commitment to education and industry collaboration; Gather accurate LMI and use it strategically; Enhance the existing careers guidance services and information; Support transition of young people into employment & self-employment Developing Institutional Leadership: Establish structures to encourage institutions to be semi-autonomous; Empowering leaders Perceptions & Role of Young People: Commitment to employing young people; Young people as future drivers of growth www.britishcouncil.org

15. MELANIE RELTON REGIONAL PROJECT MANAGER FURTHER EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA BRITISH COUNCIL MELANIE.RELTON@AE.BRITISHCOUNCIL.ORG WWW.BRITISHCOUNCIL.ORG/SKILLSFOREMPLOYABILITY MELANIE.RELTON@AE.BRITISHCOUNCIL.ORG www.britishcouncil.org15