Closing the Skills Gap in the Maghreb: Community College Solutions
Unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa region is the highest in the world, with 56 percent of the workforce unemployed, the majority of them youth and women. In February 2014, the Aspen Institute’s Partners for a New Beginning – North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (PNB-NAPEO) led a delegation of US community college leaders to North Africa to meet with higher education, vocational training, and business leaders from four countries: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. The delegation, organized in collaboration with the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, explored similarities and differences in the higher education and vocational training systems in the US and North Africa, and discussed best practices and potential areas of future collaboration.
Please join us for a discussion on the challenges in North Africa’s higher education system, and the potential for public-private partnerships to advance innovative solutions for the crippling problem of unemployment.
Our speakers include:
- Evan Ryan, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs
- Joshua Wyner, executive director, College Excellence Program, The Aspen Institute
- Kathryn Mannes, senior vice president for workforce and economic development, American Association of Community Colleges
- Russ Beard, director of information resources, Bellevue College
A light lunch will be served at 12:15 pm.