The Information Technology Landscape in Egypt

Underpinnings of the Egyptian Labor Resource

 

 
 
 

Egyptian Literacy Rates:

The literacy rate of the Egyptian population age 15 and over is 51.4%.  By gender:

  • male: 63.6%
  •  female: 38.8% (1995 est.)  (CIA Fact Book)
Egyptian Universities

 Secondary-school graduates may pursue either of two separate academic tracks:   university acceptance via national examinations or technical institutes specializing in agriculture, commerce, and industry. Egypt has 13 independent universities. The largest of these is the University of Cairo at Giza, founded as the Egyptian University in 1908. Universities were opened at Alexandria in 1942 and at Asyut in 1957. Ain Shams University, incorporating several other schools near Cairo, was established in 1950. There are also state universities at Helwan, Mansura, and Tanta. The American University in Cairo was founded in 1919, and the Suez Canal University was established in Ismailia in 1976.

http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/01464_A.html
 

University/Training Graduates Supplied to the IT Sector

The output of the various Universities and colleges graduating Computer Science students in Egypt are illustrated in the following table. The total number of graduates exceeds 2,000, but some of these will be the same students that have attended one college for their Undergraduate degree, and then moved on to take a post-graduate course before entering the industry - a 25% overlap in students has been added  to accommodate for this factor. (Harvard)

    Type of Graduate 

1998  Establishments
1. Computer Science Grads (software)  Computer Science
 ± 1000/annum 		 AUC, CU, Ein-Shams University, Sadat Academy etc
2. EE (Hardware and microprocessors)  Small portion of courses graduating ± 70/annum  Arab Academy of Science and Technology, AUC
3. Management Information Systems (IT oriented)  Minority graduating 70/annum  Arab Academy of Science and Technology
4. Post Graduates courses MSc  Computer Science (software) Graduating ± 50/annum Arab Academy of Science and Technology, AUC
5. Post Graduates courses MSc  Management Information Systems (IT oriented) Graduating 70/annum  Arab Academy of Science, AUC
6. Post Graduate - Computer Science specific courses  Graduating about 750 students/annum  ITI and RITI and others
7. Technology specific - Product oriented  Provided by individual companies, training firms, or product suppliers  Various including Microsoft, League Technology, ACT and OpenSoft
8. Management and business development  Limited courses available RITI offers some courses through other Universities in US and Europe

Total production from all these institutions is estimated around 1,500 graduates per annum. It should also be noted that these graduates are based on some cross over of students from other disciplines (mathematics and related sciences) to the ITI and RITI courses.

Quality of Graduates

Interviews conducted for a recent study of the software industry indicated that, in the opinion of most software companies, recent university computer science graduates in Egypt have good technical skills but lacked sufficient expertise in any one technology to be immediately useful. Companies hiring recent graduates spent between three months to one year providing additional training.

Another shortcoming of the Egyptian education system, with respect to the software industry, is the lack of independent thinking and problem solving skills amongst new graduates.   Several Managing Directors interviewed for the above study remarked that students emerge from the system with knowledge, but not the creativity, quality or team building skills critical to success in the software industry.
 
 

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