The government has developed a national training plan to encourage employment as part of its efforts to reduce unemployment.

The plan is to also eliminate the problems associated with over three million individuals, almost 13.1% of the labour force, currently unemployed, said Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb.

Mehleb’s comments came during a conference held on Monday to launch the national employment plan.

“The plan aims to provide 2 million jobs at home and 170,000 jobs were provided throughout 2014, of which 70% were filled,” Mehleb said. “The goal is to increase the number of these opportunities by 25% during each stage.”

According to Mehleb, the government seeks to annually train and prepare through the plan approximately 750,000 Egyptians to work in Egypt. A further 850,000 others will be trained to work abroad in a number of both traditional and new markets in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Mehleb said the government is hoping to use the new plan to increase Egyptian labour on the domestic and foreign markets. The plan will also reduce unemployment to match global rates through effective reforms to connect the outputs of education and training with current and projected labour market needs.

“We have to build an accurate database for the labour market, unemployment rates, and unemployment distribution according to age, qualifications, and gender in order to set out a training plan that conforms with reality,” he added.

He also said that the over 16 training stakeholders in Egypt have more than 800 training centres, but failed to match the government’s minimum ambitions.

Mehleb added that this conference coincided with the fourth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution, during which the people called for “Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice”. He pointed out that joint work to achieve these goals must take place to address the problem of unemployment and provide jobs.

Mehleb pointed to a need to consider the importance of coordination between training and education policies and programmes, and current and future labour market needs, which are linked to development plans and investment projects.

He called for a discussion on population growth and a subsequent increase in those searching for work, and how the country can face this ordeal through targeted and continuous training and education. He also called for a discussion on the increasing supply of unskilled labour which does not meet the requirements of the domestic or international economies.

He pointed out that whatever is spent on training and technical education, whether by budget entities or international grants, will not achieve their goals. He explained that the reality of this issue must be acknowledged to develop a national plan to analyse results and determine the negatives so that they may be overcome.

The Prime Minister emphasised the need to create a unified umbrella to bring these entities together, to see the results of professional training meeting the needs of the local and global job market. He also called for the development of a technical education organisation to produce professionals and specialists in all industries and crafts, as this matter has become extremely urgent.

Minister of Manpower Nahed Al-Ashry said the national plan for training and employment aims to identify the skills required in order to train 750,000 individuals annually for 300 professions. This would take place in accordance with modern training systems which meet the needs of the Egyptian labour market and new projects.

The programme hopes to train 850,000 workers to work outside of Egypt utilising modern training techniques as well.

She pointed out that implementation of an electronic link between 315 Ministry of Manpower employment and immigration offices is underway across Egypt’s provinces. The project will be implemented in 63 offices annually throughout the period of the plan, and new offices will be built in Halayib and Shalateen as well as other areas.