EDUEGYPT: The Egyptian National Initiative for Human Capital Development

Abstract

Core academic subjects such as reading, writing, science, math, languages, social studies and arts remain the foundation of a comprehensive education and are more important than ever. However, leaders in education and business agree that the 21st century skills and content in areas such as productivity, teamwork, cultural competence, interactive communication, critical thinking, technology, language and systems thinking are needed to succeed in school, work and life. Today's challenging business environment implies that it is no longer sufficient for a new graduate to be a "walking-encyclopedia", stuffed with facts, figures, definitions and formulas but require being a knowledgeable student (learner) who can know how to learn, how to organize information and how to distinguish between important and less important pieces of information. This paper introduces this problem and how EDUEGYPT pilot program adopt these thinking approaches in the Egyptian universities within allowed timeframe and regulations of universities. The paper describes the methodology that followed at five faculties of Cairo and Ain Shams universities to incorporate these skills. Finally, the paper illustrates the results of this pilot which are represented in having a talent pool of students acquiring new skills beside their academic knowledge ready to cope with a rapidly changing world and labor market needs. Finally, we will discuss the lessons learned and the future work of EDUEgypt program.