New Delhi: India and Egypt have agreed to enhance their strategic partnership in skill development, aiming to create a future-ready and globally competitive workforce, according to an official statement released on Tuesday.
The decision was reached during a high-level meeting between an Egyptian delegation, led by Prof. Ayman Bahaa El Din, Deputy Minister of Technical Education, and representatives from India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
The statement outlined several promising areas for future collaboration, including:
- Joint certification programs
- Faculty and student exchanges
- Entrepreneurial and digital skilling initiatives
- Establishment of Centers of Excellence in priority sectors such as green skills, information technology, agriculture, and tourism.
Both delegations expressed a shared vision of developing a workforce that is both future-ready and internationally competitive. They also aim to use their collaboration as a model for broader South-South cooperation.
This engagement builds upon the momentum of the 2023 elevation of bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership and the recent awarding of Egypt’s highest civilian honor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking another significant step in the growing relationship between India and Egypt.
Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, MSDE, highlighted the long-standing institutional and interpersonal connections between the two nations. He emphasized India’s ambition to become the “Skill Capital of the World” through the Skill India Mission, which has trained nearly 400,000 individuals in cutting-edge fields like big data, robotics, and artificial intelligence, and supported over 1.3 million businesses.
Tiwari cited the establishment of world-class Skill India International Centers and India’s efforts to align its Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem with international standards as examples of successful international cooperation.
The Egyptian delegation detailed Egypt’s comprehensive TVET reforms, which share similarities with India’s scalable and cost-effective skilling approaches. These reforms include the development of Sector Skill Councils and the EU-backed TVET Egypt Reform Programme.
Both sides acknowledged the achievements of past collaborations, including the 2024 Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt’s Information Technology Institute and India’s NIELIT, the El-Sewedy Group’s partnership with Amity University, and the Indian-financed Vocational Training Centre in Cairo.
