With increasing focus being given to the potential of more systemic developments of entrepreneurship in national education systems, a high-profile meeting called by WEF reinforces ETF’s policy metric drive in the Middle East and North Africa. The meeting, held in Marrakech on 24 October, comprised high-level policy makers and representatives from the private sector and forms part of a wider effort by WEF to promote quality education globally.

Lamis Alami, the Palestinian Minister of Education and Higher Education particularly stressed the need to introduce entrepreneurship as a key competence in all levels and forms of education, including non formal education. Training which can prepare people for self-employment was very important in the North Africa and Middle East area, she said.

At the meeting, ETF’s Aziz Jaouani lead discussions on how the entrepreneurship drive in education systems could be measured. ‘We are pleased that the measurement debate in now being taken on board by other partners,’ says Jaouani. ‘We see this as an opportunity to build on the ETF policy indicators which are already part of the EU-Southern Mediterranean economic cooperation process,’ he adds. Mr. Jaouani is a member of the WEF Advisory Group on entrepreneurial learning for North Africa and the Middle East.

The meeting concluded that efforts were required to develop indicators which track outcomes and impact from the learning system; and that education authorities should take the lead. Broader issues related to gender, school drop-outs and the grey economy also needed to be knitted into a future indicator development drive. A manifesto for entrepreneurial learning for the Middle East and North Africa region will be elaborated based on the issues and recommendations of the experts who met in Marrakech.

The entrepreneurship recommendations were then presented to a regional education summit comprising education ministers and industry leaders on 25 October. The delegations considered broader challenges to be addressed by the region’s education systems in the bid for improved employability and better performing businesses. Ensuring a better fit between the skills needs of businesses and what the education system can provide was central to the discussions. ‘Bridging the education-economy divide is even more critical today’, says Mr. Jaouani, ‘and requires partnership at all levels - national; sectorial and local at the level of schools’. The summit concluded with the establishment of a new leadership group to investigate how to improve 21st century skills for the region.

The WEF meeting for the Middle East and North Africa region follows as similar initiative for Europe held in Brussels in 11-12 May which concluded with a manifesto for entrepreneurial learning for the European countries.