Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
Ismailia Governor, Minister of Labor and Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the “Bridges” Initiative Witness the First Launch of the “Bridges” Initiative in Ismailia
Media Department, Ismailia Governorate
October 19, 2024
Major General Pilot Akram Mohamed Galal, Governor of Ismailia, Mr. Mohamed Gebran, Minister of Labor, and Dr. Hossam Badrawi, Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Education First Foundation and the Bridges Initiative, witnessed this morning, Saturday, the conference announcing the launch of the Bridges Initiative to support technical education, the “Bridges” Initiative in Ismailia Governorate, at the theater of the Advanced Military Experimental Technical School for Information Technology.
The initiative is attended by Education First Foundation, Takatof Association, Misr El Kheir Foundation, Vodafone Charity Foundation, and Badrawi Foundation for Education and Development. This was attended by Dr. Nasser Mandour, President of Suez Canal University, Eng. Ahmed Essam El Din, Deputy Governor of Ismailia, Brigadier General Mohamed Farag Shaalan, Military Advisor to the Governorate, Dr. Mahmoud Hamza, CEO of Education First Foundation and General Coordinator of the Bridges Initiative, Meryl Nessim, Member of the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood, Artist Tarek El Desouky, Cultural Advisor to the Initiative, Dr. Ali Hattab, Director of the Technical Office in the Governorate, Hassan El Raddad, Director of the Labor Directorate in Ismailia, Maha Hafnawi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Solidarity in Ismailia, Dr. Sami Fadl, Director of the Education Directorate, educational leaders in Ismailia Governorate, and directors of primary, preparatory, and secondary technical schools. The conference began with the playing of the national anthem of the Arab Republic of Egypt, followed by a speech by Dr. Hossam Badrawi, in which he expressed his happiness that the launch of the “Bridges” initiative was from Ismailia Governorate, due to its components that make the initiative capable of implementation and producing effective outcomes quickly, as well as the initiative’s agreement with the state’s vision for developing education.
Praising the role of civil society and its institutions in supporting the state’s plans and strategies in all fields, most notably education, saying, “Together we can do a lot,” and praising the efforts made by the Governor of Ismailia on the ground and opening important and critical files, stressing the full cooperation between the initiative and Ismailia Governorate.
He also referred during his speech to the axes on which the initiative works, which are availability, quality, and management of the educational process from centralization to decentralization, digitalization, and artificial intelligence, and the manufacture of man and conscience and competitiveness at the local, regional and global levels, noting that Ismailia Governorate is scheduled to establish two new schools for pharmaceutical and technological industries to keep pace with the labor market and supply and demand, and the rest of the technical schools will be supported.
Mr. Mohamed Gebran, Minister of Manpower, also gave a speech in which he congratulated the Governor of Ismailia on the National Day of the Governorate, and praised the efforts of the Governor of Ismailia and his cooperation with all parties to support technical education, stressing that the trend now is towards providing trained professional workers for the required crafts in European countries that have signed cooperation protocols in this regard, praising the efficiency of the Egyptian worker who is an honorable model for Egypt abroad.
Confirming his support for the initiative and the governorate and putting the Ministry’s capabilities to help the initiative and Ismailia Governorate achieve their goals in supporting technical education.
The Governor of Ismailia stressed during his speech that he was happy that the beginning of the application would be from Ismailia Governorate, which would benefit the governorate by preparing a well-educated and trained technician, according to the latest scientific and technological methods, to meet the needs of the labor market in the governorate.
Adding that this initiative, which adopts this type of education, will help Ismailia Governorate achieve industrial development in the coming few years, by preparing skilled Egyptian workers to meet the needs of the labor market, whether in the three industrial zones in the governorate, in addition to the general free investment zone, in addition to the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Qantara West, in addition to the possibility of investing idle human and productive energies to become trained and licensed professional workers whose work is easy inside and outside the country.
Stressing that interest in general, technical and technological education has become a global trend, so the Egyptian government has adopted this model of education to keep pace with industrial and technological development worldwide.
Praising the role of the Ministries of Local Development, Social Solidarity, Labor, Education, Suez Canal University and civil society institutions, to implement purposeful initiatives that address the most important problems we face, which is unemployment, and work together to implement the goals and plans of Egypt’s Vision 2030, which was led by Dr. Hossam Badrawi
Announcing the governorate’s launch of the Training for Employment Initiative to focus on technical education students, graduates, people with disabilities, and women breadwinners to train in various craft professions that the labor market needs in order to open up job opportunities for them and drive the wheel of production.
It is worth noting that the project will continue for three years, with the aim of raising the professional and educational efficiency of workers in the public education sector from kindergarten to the end of the basic education stage in Ismailia Governorate, to include (434 schools), (8713 teachers), (1000 educational leaders), (957 psychological and social specialists), and (798 administrators) in an initial statistical manner, 56 community education schools with 174 teachers.
The project is based on several main axes, which are training and sustainable professional development for workers in public education schools (kindergartens – primary stage – preparatory stage) in Ismailia Governorate from educational leaders, teachers, administrators, psychological and social specialists.
The impact measurement phase is carried out through the field visits programme and training of scientific and academic evaluation cadres (TOT team), the programme for caring for outstanding students and discovering and caring for talented students.
In addition to the scientific and academic competition program through the competitions (Egyptian Schools – Effective Leader – Egyptian Teacher – Effective Administrator – Effective Specialist).
And the program to support applied technology schools in Ismailia Governorate, in cooperation with the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the program to develop community service schools to reduce dropouts, and the digital transformation program by activating the (Educational) platform.
The project is divided into three stages, the first stage (from September 2024 to July 2025), which includes training kindergarten teachers, training primary school teachers, training educational leaders (Administration Director – School Director – and School Deputy), training psychological and social specialists, the program to care for outstanding students (top third grade middle school – top sixth grade primary school) “We are Egypt Program”, activating the digital transformation initiative (Educational), activating the (Egyptian Schools) competition.
The second phase (from August 2025 to July 2026), during which the preparatory stage training program, the administrators training program, the activation of the competitions (Egyptian Teacher – Effective Specialist – Effective Leader – Distinguished Management), the field visits and impact measurement program, the gifted students care program (Ebhar Misr Program) will be implemented. The third phase (from August 2026 to September 2027), during which the cadres preparation program (TOT trainers team) will be implemented, and a (Bridges) unit will be established in Ismailia Governorate to follow up on the sustainability of professional development and care for outstanding and gifted students and educational competitions. The implementation steps included holding a meeting with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, the Directorate of Education in Ismailia Governorate, representatives of the National Alliance for Civil Development Work, and representatives of the “Bridges” Initiative to agree on the work plan, signing a joint cooperation protocol between the Ministry, the Alliance, and the institutions of the “Bridges” Initiative, forming the Executive Committee of the “Bridges” Initiative, and holding an expanded meeting with the directors of the departments of Ismailia Governorate (8 departments): (North / South / Abu Suwayr / Qassasin / Tell El-Kebir / Fayed / Qantara West / Qantara East), then holding a meeting with the directors of primary and preparatory schools in Ismailia Governorate, and activating the applied technology system in Ismailia Governorate.
