Edexcel has signed an agreement with the prestigious Arab Academy in Egypt to offer a range of BTEC vocational qualifications designed to address their technical skills shortage.
The prestigious Arab Academy, based in Alexandria, Egypt, is pioneering a new four-year technical degree where students enter the Academy aged 18 onto a Bachelor of Technology degree. Until now, only the full five-year Bachelor of Engineering Degree course was available.
In Egypt, students start their degree course at the age of 18. Courses take five years to complete. This new pathway will be offered to students who typically do not have the grades to get onto a B.Eng. degree from the outset. It is the first time such a route to degree has been available to Egyptian students.
In the same way that HND students transfer onto full degree programmes in the UK, Egypt’s students can progress on to employment or opt to go into the final year of the Bachelor of Engineering - the standard degree level. BTEC HND qualifications have international currency; students can transfer globally to university programmes around the world for the top-up year, including British universities such as Greenwich, Leeds Metropolitan and Northumbria.
The Arab Academy is the country’s leading vocational teaching institution and aspires to teach current best practice in qualifications that lead to jobs for their students which specifically meeting the needs of industry.
The four-year pathway breaks down as:
Year 1 = 4 HND units and Academy degree units
Year 2 = 6 HND units and Academy degree units (candidates can opt to leave with a BTEC HNC at this point)
Year 3 = 6 HND units and Academy degree units (candidates get BTEC HND at this point)
Year 4 = Academy degree units (candidates get B.Tech degree (NB different to BTEC))
Dr Gamal Mokhtar, President, Arab Academy, said: “You cannot build industry without technical knowledge. The Arab Academy is proud to be a university of technology working with Edexcel. BTEC HNCs and HNDs will help Egypt to fill its skills gaps.”
John Kerr (LEFT) signing the Intent with Dr Gamal Mokhtar, President, Arab Academy
Rick Firth, Edexcel’s BTEC Director, added: “The shared vision that the Arab Academy has with BTEC is that they both aspire to provide useful and meaningful qualifications for modern industry. Useful for both the learner, and for industry. Qualifications that have international currency. We are united in aiming to develop technical education.
“I believe that the HNDs blended with a Bachelor of Technology degree will provide a progression for Egypt’s students that could be a model for elsewhere in the world. Designed to meet specific local market needs such as in air conditioning and refrigerating technicians, these qualifications will help to quickly address the technical skills shortage in Egypt that other countries are just starting to address.”
