A new type of vocational school is on the rise:With the boom in demand in the local real estate sector is undergoing, the industry is grappling with a shortage of trained workers, according to several industry veterans we spoke to. In response, a number of real estate developers have begun to set up real estate “schools,” high-school level programs that teach construction, finishing, landscaping, and other areas of study concerned with real estate development. The push is part of the Education Ministry’s strategy to grow the number of technical and vocational schools in collaboration with the private sector.

Private sector participation is picking up: The country’s first privately-owned real estate school, Amar Applied Technology School, was established last year by real estate developer Amar Developments, and onboarded its inaugural class in the 2022-2023 academic year. Licensed by the Education Ministry, and located in Sheikh Zayed, the school offers a three-year curriculum with specializations in residential and hotel real estate. Coursework includes construction, planning, landscaping, paints, finishes, and hands-on training — even German plumber Grohe has become partners to train students at the company’s headquarters, chairperson Abeer Essam told Enterprise. Applications for the 2023-2024 academic year opened last month.

Our first landscaping school: Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) inked an agreement in Januarywith the Education Ministry to establish the country’s first applied technology school in the field of landscaping. Named Sonaa El Ghad for Applied Technology, the school opened its doors to technical high school students in the current academic year. The school marks the second academic collaboration between the ministry and TMG, who partnered up with TMG to start the Imam Muhammed Metwally El Shaarawi School of Applied Technology. The school, whose first class graduated in the 2020-2021 academic year, offers a range of subjects including architectural finishes, maintenance, refrigeration, air conditioning, specialized facility networks, and integrated electrical systems.

We’re also getting a facility management school: Real estate developer Mountain View has partnered up with the state to set up a school that specializes in facility management technology under an agreement inked between the Education Ministry and USAID back in March. The Mountain View International School of Applied Technology opened its doors to its first class at the beginning of the current academic year. It aims to help raise the standard of technical labor and help graduates secure jobs in facility management at big firms.

Infrastructure exports catalyzed the push for vocational education: The scarcity of skilled labor became apparent in recent years after Egyptian companies started to ink agreements to work on reconstruction projects in Libya and Iraq, Essam said. Cabinet requested the provision of trained technical workers for the reconstruction programs, and confronted with the shortage, the state started to incorporate real estate schools in its plan to grow the number of applied technology schools in the country, Essam explained. The expansion of real estate schools will enable the local real estate sector to export trained labor to Arab markets, allowing us to compete with East Asia’s formidable labor market, Essam added.

The government is working to incentivize technical programs: The Education Ministry provides private sector players that qualify to set up vocational schools with old school buildings free of charge, provided that they renovate them at their own expense, Essam said.The government plans to set up 100 vocational schools with private sector industrial partners by 2030, Deputy Education Minister for Technical Education Mohamed Megahed told us. The government aims to change the culture for graduates of technical education and has come a long way in fulfilling that goal by increasing applied technology schools of different types in collaboration with the private sector, which has made this system successful, he said.

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