© UNESCO-UNEVOC

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

2-4 February 2020

To foster collaboration and enable action-oriented partnerships between the UNEVOC Centres in the Arab States, a UNEVOC Network Consolidation Workshop was organized in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Centre for TVET (ACTVET) – a UNEVOC Centre in the United Arab Emirates. This workshop aimed at understanding the needs of UNEVOC Members and developing responsive programmatic engagement in the region.

The UNEVOC Network in the Arab States consists of 28 institutes across 19 countries comprising of key national TVET stakeholders including ministries, research institutions, regulatory authorities and training institutions. While each of these centres is undertaking various activities in support of youth skills development for the current and emerging world of work, there is a significant value and scale that can be achieved though collaborations between the UNEVOC Centres.

Around 25 participants attended the workshop, representing 8 UNEVOC Centres across 8 Member States, as well as representatives from UNESCO-UNEVOC, and the UNESCO Offices in Doha and Beirut. The UNEVOC Centres participating at the workshop represented a core group that will continue to work closely with UNESCO-UNEVOC to deepen the existing UNEVOC Network footprint in the region through institutionalized linkages. During the two days of intensive discussions, the UNEVOC Centres shared their thematic preferences which shall guide future collaborative activities in the Arab States. The themes discussed during the workshop included: skills for the future; improving the perception of TVET; promoting entrepreneurship and innovation; and enhancing inclusion and social equity.

Furthermore, the UNEVOC Network in the Arab States was also divided into three sub-clusters, each of which will see one UNEVOC Centre take a leading role in coordinating the activities in that cluster.

Clusters	Cluster Coordinator
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries	ACTVET, United Arab Emirates
Middle East	DG Vocational Training and Education, Ministry of Education, Lebanon
North Africa	Ministry of Education and Technical Education, Egypt

The Centres identified for coordination roles will be working in close collaboration with UNESCO-UNEVOC for cluster and thematic engagement as well as programme development and implementation.