Omar Samra headlines the annual edition of Pearson Egypt Senior Leaders Conference

21 November 2022, Dubai, U.A.E

Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, recently hosted its annual Egypt Senior Leaders Conference, in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt on 1-2 November 2022. Aligned with its commitment to support the nation’s educational institutions and professionals in improving learner outcomes, the conference brought together inspiring regional and international leaders from education, business, and government to share their innovative teaching and leadership ideas to help shape the future of education.

The conference featured a special keynote by world-renowned Egyptian entrepreneur, adventurer, speaker, and analogue astronaut Omar Samra, who stressed the critical need to transform educational systems to prepare today’s young learners for future success. Omar is a strong advocate to address climate change issues and was also a speaker at COP27 to address and raise awareness to promote the right change. The mountaineer-turned-serial entrepreneur said exposing Gen Z to outdoor learning was critical. Time spent in nature helps individuals develop important skills that they will need in life.

Iman Sabry, Head of Private and International Department, Ministry of Education attended the conference on behalf of Dr Reda Hegazy, Minister of Education and Vocational Education, and applauded Pearson’s initiative to bring together educational leaders and to deliver high-quality educational curriculum and maintain the standards of UK qualifications in Egypt, which is extremely valuable to Egypt’s Ministry of Education.

Recent data from LinkedIn shows that the skill sets for jobs have changed by nearly 25% since 2015 – and that number is expected to double by 2027. A PwC survey found that 81% of CEOs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) consider the skills gap a major business threat. According to this year’s Arab Youth Survey, eight in 10 young Arabs are concerned about the quality of education in their country and 32 percent said unemployment is the biggest obstacle facing the region.

The global higher education sector has been positively disrupted by the pandemic. A World Bank report said countries in the region have been resilient and rapidly responded by shifting to digital delivery, but the demand for effective digital content and assessments is underserved and growing. Egypt has the largest education system in the MENA region and there is a strong reliance on the government as the main education provider. The Egyptian government’s Education Strategy in Vision 2030 acknowledges that the system is yet to deliver high quality education, which is essential to meet the country’s labor market needs and respond to the evolving social and political systems.

Commenting on the initiative, Kathryn Booth, Director of Pearson Schools Qualifications, MENAT, said: “It was wonderful having Omar as our guest speaker during the two-day conference for Pearson Education. His strong, clear motivational speech on both days had a tremendous impact on the audience. It is evident that the demand for skills will continue to evolve and accelerate. At Pearson, we recognize our responsibility to contribute to advancing learning ecosystems, which is why we continue to initiate conversations with senior leaders, decision makers and stakeholders in the education industry. We remain committed to meeting market demands through building relevant partnerships, upgrading our offerings, and working with the academic community to help prepare learners for the future job market. Transforming education is now critical for economic progress and the insightful conversations during our conference will play a pivotal role in shaping the innovative solutions that deliver for the new era.”

The Egypt Senior Leaders Conference provided a unique and supportive platform for education leaders, industry and government entities, to collaborate and address the urgent requirement for an outcome-based learning framework. It invited participation from some of the key industry leaders and prominent academic institutions including, Eman Sabry, Private Education Manager at Ministry of Education; Hoda Soliman, Managing Director at Manor House School, Dokki; Maysa Abaza, Principal at Riada International School, Alexandria; Lobna El Mihy, Managing Director at The Int’l School of Elite Education; and Rasha El Geoushy, Principal at Roots Language School.

Pearson as a learning company continues to play an integral role in providing the education community with quality content, courses and innovative platforms to navigate through the transformation of its education sector.