The recommendations of the 18th annual conference of the Adult Education Center at Ain Shams University

Participants in the eighteenth annual conference of the Adult Education Center at Ain Shams University entitled (Adult Education and Entrepreneurship in the Arab World) stressed the importance of adult education in refining entrepreneurial skills, with a focus on entrepreneurship education as a planning guide for all stages of education.

The conference, which lasted from February 5-7, 2022, was under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Nevin Al-Kabbaj, Minister of Social Solidarity, Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of Ain Shams University, and Dr. Ashour Omari, President of the Adult Education Authority, Headed by Prof. Dr. Hisham Temraz, Vice President of Community Service and Environmental Development and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Adult Education Center, and Dr. Islam Al-Saeed, Director of the Center, the conference dealt with four basic areas, namely, entrepreneurship and development of adult education programs in the Arab world, entrepreneurship and the future of adult education institutions in the Arab world.

Dr. Islam Al-Saeed, director of the center and rapporteur of the conference, explained that the conference came out with a set of important recommendations directed to the concerned ministries, universities, and the General Authority for Adult Education. There were also recommendations for the Adult Education Center.

With regard to the concerned ministries, Dr. Islam Al-Saeed indicated that the conference recommended including capabilities in building the capacity of teachers, integrating standards of entrepreneurship programs as an accreditation requirement for educational institutions, and designing entrepreneurial activities at all educational levels to support building the value of entrepreneurship in the personality, with allocating incentive prizes for best practices. Entrepreneurship in each sector, and the preparation and organization of planned media campaigns to reshape societal awareness towards social, economic and digital entrepreneurship, The conference also recommended the establishment of civil society centers working on entrepreneurship, setting up a mechanism for accrediting and enabling them, establishing follow-up departments for entrepreneurship plans in each ministry, and finally launching an electronic platform for entrepreneurship to document modern skills and trends and present the most important experiences with reference to the symbols of the field and the authorities responsible for providing assistance and their steps to be a means of livelihood And facilitating the support of the institution and the entrepreneurial individual.

Regarding the conference’s recommendations for universities, Dr. Islam Al-Saeed indicated that they emphasized the need to design multiple methodological maps that include a culture of resistance to change for entrepreneurship, with coordination between different faculties, chambers of commercial activities, unions, and the Ministry of Planning to link the graduate to the general economic orientation, while attracting universities to the heads of economic activity to create effective business incubators in all disciplines, design and prepare specialized training guides for entrepreneurship, include them in student activities, and include the skills and areas of entrepreneurship in the research map of the different departments.

Regarding the recommendations directed to the Adult Education Authority, they are preparing methodological maps to eradicate adult illiteracy in accordance with the orientation of entrepreneurship, and training the concerned cadres to disseminate this trend and provide skills to learners with the preparation of a documentation guide for successful initiatives and measuring their impact on the student and society.

With regard to the recommendations of the Adult Education Center, the conference stressed the need to prepare an organizational guide for entrepreneurship skills and prepare a video-recorded library for the conference’s research summary and broadcast it to those interested to document this trend, with coordination of an Arab research project on mechanisms for developing education for entrepreneurship at the level of universities and centers.

The conference also recommended coordinating with the General Authority for Adult Education to discuss a mechanism for launching a pioneering initiative within the national project to eradicate illiteracy.