With a growing role of the private sector in creating employment opportunities for youth and job

seekers in the MENA countries and a simultaneous shrinkage of the role of what used to be a public

sector’s enterprises, the notion of private-public partnership (PPP) gained ground and became of a

prime importance. The last few decades witnessed a major shift in the economic policies In the MENA

countries - from a central planning and economic enterprises public ownership approach, to an openmarket

policy and a stream of privatization. For this reason, the TVET providers in the region, mainly

public sector institutions, slowly started to involve employers and their organizations in TVET.

However, in most cases the public sector providers were focusing on enhancing commitments of the

private sector, in particular direct funding and training opportunities. The bureaucrats were not yet

ready to accept the positive and effective role of the private sector in developing TVET policies,

planning, monitoring and evaluation.

Throughout the years, the national experts, as well as many international technical cooperation

providers, called for a number of initiatives that were to enhance the role of the private sector

(cooperative training, formulation of TVET councils including representatives of the private sector,

labour market information systems, and developing a demand-driven TVET system and curriculum).

Following the series of initiatives, the scene became better prepared for a full partnership between the

TVET providers and the private sector that started employing their graduates. Recently the notion of

PPP was a cross-cutting issue of an important and comprehensive report, prepared by UNESCO for

the G8-BMENA Economic Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh (May 2006)1. The PPP is also going to be on the

agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the G8-BMENA’s TVET working group, as well as on the

agenda of other events.

Considering the importance and the relevance of the PPP for the TVET systems in the Arab region,

the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in Bonn took the lead in organizing a field visit for a number of

professionals coming from UNEVOC centres in six Arab countries - two of which are among the good

practices in PPP in the region. The aim was to present practical examples of PPP to the participants

and to allow an in-depth discussion on how such a practice could be implemented in their own

countries. Meanwhile, the visited institutions benefited from the expertise of the participants and the

generated discussion. Experiencing things in real on the ground and witnessing the impact was

definitely crucial. For that reason exactly it was decided to have a field visit focusing on meeting the

private sector partners, instead of organizing a seminar, a workshop or an experts’ meeting.