Under the auspices of the Minister of Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements, Dr. Laila Iskander, the “Second National Vocational Service Seminar” was held at the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) Campus in El Gouna from October 30th to November 1st, 2014.
The 3-day event was organized by the Vocational Committee of Rotary District 2451, and was attended by Governor of the Red Sea governorate, Major-General. Ahmed Abdalla; the governor of Rotary District 2451, Dr. Ahmed Saada with some key figures of the Rotary members; Director of the European Organisation for Training and Development (EEOTD), Eng. Onsi Georgious, as well as ECG delegation including Vice President of Human Resources & Organizational Development, Dr. Nevine AbdelKhalek, HR team and 20 students from the current round of University To Work (UTW).
Focusing on the fields of construction, nursing and tourism, the conference sessions were conducted towards sustainable vocational training programs and development in favor of informal settlements. The sessions also shed light on different training partnerships; highlighting the concept of vocational training teams and exchange of information between professionals in other countries as an opportunity for encouraging professional development and learning new skills. In one of the technical sessions, Eng. Georgious shared the construction standards that were developed a couple of years ago by ECG and Arab Contractors for 4 site labourers’ jobs (Bricklayer, Plasterer, Painter and Tile Fixer).
On the sideline of the conference, Dr. Nevine AbdelkhalekIn, in her capacity as Chair of the EEOTD Board of Trustees, signed a cooperation agreement with Dr. Iskandar for training 1,200 citizens in four informal settlements (Ezbat Khair Alla, Manshiat Naser, Abou Kattata and El-Bahr El-Aazm). This training will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and the Arab Contractors. The event proceedings also included a marathon sponsored by Eng. Sameeh Sawiris on October 31st with the theme of “Run for the Future”. The marathon targeted to help the needy in Informal Settlements. One of ECG trainees, Idd Moussa from Tanzania, received the gold Medal from both Dr. Laila Iskandar and Eng. Sawiris.
