Labour Market and Skills Gap Analysis for Youth Apprenticeships

MAIS ONG commissioned Common Ground Solutions to carry out the primary labour market assessment and skills gap analysis underpinning TAKE STEPS, a 36-month apprenticeship initiative funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. The programme will reach 600 young people not in employment, education or training, 60 per cent of them women and 20 per cent refugees and forcibly displaced people, and place 400 as apprentices with host companies.

The assessment covers Greater Cairo, Damietta and Sharkia, with findings disaggregated by area, gender, age and displacement status.

CGS designed it in three components. Component A is a secondary review and CGS's own analysis of CAPMAS Labour Force Survey microdata, the 2024 round for current structure and 2019 to 2024 for trends, quantifying the three areas separately for the first time. Component B is the supply-side inquiry: eight focus group discussions in each area, holding young women and men apart, and reaching refugees and forcibly displaced people and juniors already in work. Component C covers the demand side, TVET provision and governance, through enterprise interviews and interviews with business associations, training providers, labour directorates and civil society organisations.

Eight instruments were developed. The enterprise frame sets 84 interviews, 25 in Greater Cairo, 25 in Sharkia and 34 in Damietta, sampled across the sectors that employ in each area and weighted toward the national priority sectors.

This inception report is the first deliverable. It fixes the design, sampling frame, instruments and the ethics, safeguarding and data protection arrangements before fieldwork begins.