The Education Development Fund Participates in the "Working with Finland" Conference in Partnership with "Ibdaa"
Dr. Rasha Saad Sharaf, Secretary-General of the Education Development Fund, affiliated with the Prime Minister's office, emphasized that the fund operates as an incubator for unconventional models of educational projects across various education sectors. It provides direct solutions to the problems faced by the education sector and ensures compliance with international standards in terms of accreditation and quality. This is achieved by creating an educational model that produces graduates meeting international standards, which can be adopted and scaled across the relevant sector.
During her speech at the "Working with Finland" conference, organized by the "Ibdaa" Foundation and the Finnish Embassy in Egypt, she outlined the fund’s strategy in collaboration with industry partners and international stakeholders to achieve the best return on education for the Egyptian economy and development indicators across various fields. She clarified that the fund relies on having an international educational partner with expertise in staff training, curriculum development, and infrastructure enhancement to graduate students who meet global quality standards within a specific timeframe.
Dr. Sharaf pointed out that the fund is working to provide unconventional educational models to address the accumulated educational crises. These models are based on sciences that provide direct and creative solutions. She stressed that the real challenge lies in ensuring the sustainability of these models technically, administratively, legislatively, and financially. She also emphasized the need to treat existing models as tools for sector development, rather than as an end goal. This can be achieved by ensuring the sustainability of successful models and developing new ones based on the required specializations, according to labor market studies.
On the sidelines of the conference, the Secretary-General of the Education Development Fund explored ways to form partnerships with Finland and potential funding sources for new educational projects in collaboration with Finnish experts and institutions. Both sides agreed to continue meetings until reaching the final form of the joint cooperation.
The conference was attended by Rika Ella, the Finnish Ambassador to Egypt, Ahmed Hafez, Foreign Direct Investment Officer at the "Ibdaa" Foundation, Birgit Nivala, Director of the Finnish Partnership Program, Dr. Amr Bousila, Head of the Central Department for Technical Education Development at the Ministry of Education, in addition to a number of Egyptian and Finnish experts. The discussions aimed at exploring job opportunities and enhancing partnerships, with key topics including vocational education, teacher training, human capital development, as well as networking sessions with Finnish companies.