The first of Egypt’s German-backed Centers of Competence — which pairs a three-year apprenticeship with two years of technical study — will open in Belbeis, Sharqia this year. By our count, up to EUR 215 mn is committed or in the pipeline for Egypt’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system through German development bank KfW, most of it in grants, and the centers are one part of it. Here’s what the money is building, and what comes next.

KfW has EUR 170 mn in committed funds — EUR 109 mn in grants, EUR 41 mn in debt-swap funds, and EUR 20 mn in concessional loans, KfW’s Cairo Office Director Christoph Schaefer tells EnterpriseAM. The bank also manages a EUR 13 mn EU grant for the sector and is “mandated by the German Federal Government to prepare — with the Egyptian partners — further support to the TVET sector, worth up to another EUR 32 mn,” with signing scheduled for 2027, he adds.

The German government funds the portfolio, and KfW channels the contribution into programs implemented by the Egyptian government, Schaefer says. The Central Bank of Egypt represents the state in its contracts with KfW. The debt-swap funds come from Germany waiving repayments on earlier loans, with Egypt relocating the released capital toward TVET or other agreed-upon sectors. The Education Ministry leads the national programs, while the General Authority for Educational Buildings and, in part, the Misr El Kheir Foundation carry out the work on the ground.

Energy skills lead the biggest program: The Promotion of Technical and Vocational Education and Training program totals EUR 51 mn, Schaefer adds. Germany put in a EUR 18 mn grant and a EUR 20 mn concessional loan, with the EU adding its EUR 13 mn grant. The program is planned to run from June 2020 to December 2027. The three Centers of Competence fall under this program — and the funds have gone there first — targeting renewable energy and energy efficiency training in Minya, Aswan, and Sharqia.

The EU grant is funding the rehabilitation of 16 technical secondary schools and the installation of solar panels on more than 110 primary schools, Schaefer says. The Education Ministry and the Misr El Kheir Foundation have signed contracts for procurement support on the architectural design of the Minya and Aswan centers, according to a ministry statement. The program’s first institute “was ready in 2025,” and the next ones “will be able to start operating in the coming months,” he adds.

A big system, a young workforce: Some 1.98 mn students were enrolled in Egypt’s nearly 3.5k technical secondary schools in 2025/26, according to the Education Ministry’s statistical yearbook (pdf). Each year, around 850k young people join the labor market, KfW estimated in 2024. Roughly 500k of them find work in the informal sector and some 220k in private companies or the government, leaving about 130k without work.

Informal work is particularly common among young people, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found in a 2024 working paper (pdf). Nationally, unemployment stood at 5.8% in 2Q 2026, according to Capmas. KfW also cites estimates that renewable energy could add up to 65k new jobs in Egypt by 2030.

Work comes with the classroom: Centers of Competence train students in fields including energy efficiency, woodwork, automotive, and construction, Schaefer says. Students spend three years in a work-focused apprenticeship with private sector partners, followed by two years in technical education, which opens a path to higher education. KfW also supports the TVET Teachers Academy.

These centers are co-financed by the Egyptian government, the EU, and Germany through KfW, according to implementing partner GOPA, with the Belbeis center serving the Delta and more planned across the country. On 24 June 2025, the ministry signed an MoU with the Elsewedy Electric Foundation to manage and operate the energy-focused centers, according to a ministry statement. At the same signing, an EU Delegation official noted that EU-backed centers using the same model have graduated more than 3.5k students so far, with employment rates above 80%.

Then there are the debt swaps: The EUR 41 mn in swap funds now being implemented supports the TVET Digitalisation Fund, which helps develop and scale up digital solutions for technical schools, Schaefer says. A separate EUR 40 mn debt swap financed the Integrated Technical Education Cluster in Assiut, which he says is “designed to enhance workforce skills and employability in mechanics, electronics, and IT.” KfW backed the Assiut project from 2012 until its completion in 2020.

TVET is one of three areas Germany and Egypt agreed to deepen cooperation on at their last round of government negotiations, held in Berlin in November 2025. It sits under sustainable economic development. “It is up to the governments of the two countries to decide on the priorities for bilateral development cooperation between Germany and Egypt,” Schaefer tells us. “The public KfW Development Bank only plays an advisory role.”

Once those priorities are set, KfW prepares projects with Egyptian authorities and delivers the German contribution. The bank also helps “jointly monitor the implementation” of the programs and, later, their impact, Schaefer explains. In KfW’s view, TVET support “directly addresses an important challenge for sustainable development: employability and productivity of the workforce, and youth resilience.”

KfW handles Germany’s financing, but it isn’t the only German channel into the sector. The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) provides technical support to the ministry’s Egyptian-German Technical Schools, in partnership with the EU. That work covers school upgrades, quality assurance and assessment, digital learning, and financial resource management.

The ministry has signed agreements with GIZ to develop, establish, and operate 38 Egyptian-German technical schools starting in 2026/27, Education Minister Mohamed Abdel Latif told President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in July. That same month, the ministry signed agreements for eight Egyptian-German applied technology schools with the Elsewedy Electric Foundation and 10 with the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development.

Other donors are active in the sector as well. KfW is “in close contact with all German and international development partners in Egypt,” including the EU Delegation and the wider Team Europe group, Schaefer tells us. The EU’s deputy head of delegation reaffirmed the bloc’s commitment to Egyptian TVET at the EduTech fair in 2024.

ALSO- Italy has been building its own track through applied technology schools. Its development agency signed agreements in February 2025 linking those schools with Italy’s higher technical institutes. In November 2025, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended the signing of 18 agreements with Italian academies to establish 89 applied technology schools. The initial cohort, which includes seven steel-focused schools developed with Italy’s Danieli and 26 agricultural schools, is among those scheduled to open for the 2026/27 academic year.

The Italian agreements brought Egypt’s applied technology school network to 204 schools, according to the Education Ministry. In July, Abdel Latif said new agreements would expand the network to nearly 225 schools by the start of the 2026/27 academic year, which began on 12 September.

The government is raising its own spending on the sector too. Its development plan for FY 2026/27 raises pre-university education allocations by 11.5%, with technical education among the priorities, and includes rehabilitating 1k technical schools in partnership with the private sector, Planning Minister Ahmed Rostom told the House of Representatives in April.

Looking ahead, any new German funding for TVET is decided by the German government in consultation with the Egyptian government, Schaefer says. “At present, the KfW Development Bank has no specific mandate in this regard” beyond the programs already underway, he tells us.

Germany is already paying for part of the government’s technical education reform. It signed a EUR 32 mn grant in December 2024 for the second phase of the Comprehensive Technical Education Initiative, a three-phase program the government says will set up 25 centers of excellence, according to its 2024 annual report (pdf). That’s a separate grant from the one referenced earlier by Schaefer, which comprises up to EUR 32 mn and is due to be signed in 2027.

German-Egyptian cooperation also extends to a new EUR 100 mn tranche of the two countries’ debt-swap program, announced by the International Cooperation Ministry in July 2025. It covers several sectors and is due to be activated in two stages through June 2026. “I cannot confirm a new financing agreement with us to support TVET to the tune of EUR 100 mn,” Schaefer told us when asked whether KfW has a separate agreement of that size specifically for TVET.

REFRESHER- Abdel Latif met a KfW delegation led by Schaefer on 7 April 2026 to discuss strengthening cooperation in technical education and expanding applied technology schools.

The bottom line: The financing and timelines are mapped out. KfW says it will help monitor the programs “in terms of impact,” and we’ll be keeping an eye on how graduates of the new centers fare in the job market after they open.

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