Month: February 2022

“Student learning should never be confined to the walls of a classroom. The CO-OP program is designed to give our students a headstart in today’s highly competitive job market.” – Ahmed Abdel-Meguid, associate professor of accounting and Founding CO-OP Faculty Mentor.As part of the school’s efforts in offering experiential learning opportunities and in collaboration with the Career Center, AUC School of Business launched its inaugural Cooperative Education Course (CO-OP) cohort during Summer 2021 which ran from August 1, 2021, till January 31, 2022.

The program features an elective course [BUSC 4000 – Experiential Learning: CO-OP]. Through registering for this course, School of Business students are directly engaged, on a paid full-time basis for six months, with external entities with no concurrent course enrollment.Host entities include but are not limited to multinational corporations, startups, financial institutions, governmental entities, professional services firms, think tanks, local and international economic and monetary bodies, and non-profit organizations.

Students are assigned specific tasks relevant to their fields of study during this engagement, providing realistic on-the-job training. They are co-evaluated on key learning objectives by an academic faculty from the school, and a representative of the external entity counterpart, ultimately yielding a pass/fail grade.After completing their CO-OP assignments, students resume their academic studies for at least one semester at AUC.

Such a model is conducive to students acquiring new academic knowledge through a six months ‘practical lens’ as well as sharing their experiences with other students in their courses.“This is a pilot phase, through which we are building a solid foundation to expand the program within the School of Business and roll it out to other schools in the university,” explained Soha Hassan, former assistant director, Experiential Learning at AUC’s Career Center.The program allows students to experience the life of a working professional before graduation.

“To be able to gain practical knowledge and experience real work-life while I am still a student is such an exhilarating journey for me,” highlighted Basant El Naggar, an accounting student who worked in Risk Services at PwC.“Being part of the CO-OP program is a great way for you to test-drive your career and fields of interest; you’ll definitely be getting a taste of life post-graduation, and I think this is the perfect way for students to set foot in the workplace,” elaborated Alia Yassin, a business student who joined the Brand Management department at P&G for her CO-OP.

The program is not only a chance for students to test out their dream jobs but also to find out whether or not this job actually suits them. “Basically it is an insight into your future, as it helps you determine areas that might be of interest for you,” explained Farida El Deeb, an economics student who worked at the Macroprudential Sector at the Central Bank of Egypt. “Working at the Central Bank of Egypt has helped me confirm my decision in working in the public banking sector and my passion towards this field has grown stronger,” she continued. Similarly, Mustafa El-Shahidi, a student double majoring in accounting and business who worked in Risk Services at PwC, explained how the experience made him reconsider working within the finance and accounting fields after he had decided to pursue a career in sports prior to entering the program.

On the other hand, Mennatallah Zayed, an economics student who joined The Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) as a CO-OP Economic Analyst explained how grateful she is for this program because it made her realize that a career in economic research may not be the best path for her. “This was a huge chance for me to try working in the risk assurance team and test whether I would like to continue working in it or not,” echoed Farah El Shanawany, a business student who worked in Risk Services at PwC.On a similar note, students were able to venture outside their specializations and explore broader business opportunities. Economics student Laila El Helw was able to work in Tax Advisory at PwC, something that she found a little different from her field of study. “I thought my career was limited to economics, but as a School of Business student, I took general electives that allowed me to apply for PwC,” said Laila.

“The school really prepared me for this job by laying out the foundation that I had the opportunity to build upon throughout my experience,” elaborated Youssef Ibrahim, a student double majoring in accounting and business who worked in Deals at PwC. “In my job, I was able to implement what I learned in class in real-life work situations, which was a huge milestone for me,” confirmed Basant.The CO-OP experience was extremely engaging to the extent that students were provided opportunities to attend high-level meetings where important business decisions are being made. “I did not expect that level of accountability and responsibility for my work,” emphasized Youssef.Students were also thrilled to attend meetings with both local and international clients. “In my company, I worked with clients abroad, which allowed me to gain a diverse work experience,” said Omar Ali, a business student who worked in Strategy and Business Planning at Robusta Studio.

This kind of exposure allowed the students to further expand their professional network even outside their host company. For Farida, for instance, building connections in the field was one of the most important takeaways of CO-OP. “The program helped me establish contacts in the workplace for networking opportunities and references for future employment,” she highlighted. To date, the CO-OP program has featured the following partners: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), CID Consulting, DHL, The Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES), The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, P&G, PwC, Robusta, SWVL, and Transcendium (Cilantro).

Furthermore, customized developmental and networking events were held for CO-OP students with internal and external partners, including the AUC Center for Learning and Teaching – CLT (on “Design Thinking”) and The Egyptian Professionals Network – EPN and Consoleya (on “What makes a good business leader?”). The second cohort will run from February 1 till July 31, 2022. Want to enhance your career readiness and build a professional network? Join the CO-OP program’s third cohort. Announcement of CO-OP employers, jobs, and the application process will begin in March 2022.

Congratulations to Sasin alumnus and current DBA candidate Aung Kyaw Moe (EMBA 2006 & DBA 2021), on being named an AACSB 2022 Influential Leader. As the founder and CEO of 2C2P, Aung Kyaw Moe has taken a small startup with a handful of employees to a multinational firm with 500 employees; revenues exceeding 100 million USD; and operations across Southeast Asia, North Asia, Europe, and the U.S. His personal drive for inclusion has established a diverse team comprising 50 percent women—almost unknown among unicorn tech startups—and includes employees representing 18 nationalities, with passports from 23 countries, creating an organization of unparalleled innovation.

Aung notes, “I’m quite certain that without Sasin, I would not have been able to achieve everything I’ve done in my life.” He declares that when he entered Sasin School of Management for his Executive MBA (EMBA), he was “just a computer programmer nerd,” blindly trying to run a startup. But when he left, he was “a capable CEO who understood that running a company was all about effectively managing a team of people.”

Everyone at Sasin is proud that graduates of Sasin School of Management are dedicated to making a positive impact in business and on the world. Read more about Aung’s inspiring story of leadership and influence.#AACSBleads #SasinSchoolofManagement #SasinEMBA2006 #SasinAlumni

The AUC Venture Lab, Egypt’s first University-based startup incubator and accelerator, was recognized as the Best Accelerator/Incubator Program in North Africa by the Global Startup Awards, a competition based in Copenhagen that reaches 124 countries.

The Venture Lab now sits among the continent’s top 60 digital future shapers — selected from a pool of over 7,000 nominations.

“We are honored to be recognized as the best accelerator in North Africa, as it only means that our startups will also be the best in the region,” said Ayman Ismail,  Abdul Latif Jamil Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and AUC Venture Lab Director.

The award came just as the lab graduates another cohort of 20 innovative tech-based startups from its Startup and Fintech Accelerators (more about the graduated startups here), and as it opens applications for future cycles.

“This recognition comes at a very special time,” Ismail continued. “This year, we have graduated our biggest cohorts to date, celebrated the first unicorn exit by one of our graduates and revamped our offerings to empower entrepreneurs better than ever.”

The lab has supported over 200 graduate startups that have gained EGP 3 million in investments and created 8,500 jobs, leaving a lasting impact on the greater community and regional development ecosystem.

The Global Startup Awards are powered by xo.company, which aims to connect different stakeholders to facilitate vertical innovation, in partnership with the Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG) Africa Fund.

AUC School of Business Executive MBA alumnus Moustafa El-Shenety ’21, managing partner of Zilla Capita, was awarded the MBA Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 bronze award during the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards which took place on Friday, January 21.

The MBA Entrepreneur of the Year award, is one of the most distinguished awards in the industry, celebrating the achievements of successful alumni in innovative world-class business strategy and showcasing business schools that are nurturing a spirit of enterprise and ambition. The award encourages and promotes the value of entrepreneurship in the current competitive climate and highlights its importance in the global market.

Moustafa El Shenety has 15 years of experience in investment banking, direct investments, and private equity in the Middle East. He has worked on managing investment portfolios in various sectors, including services, financial institutions, retail, healthcare, real estate, and construction. He co-founded Multiples Group in 2010, the regional boutique investment bank, out of the DIFC, Dubai, with an office in Cairo. He now serves at Zilla Capital as the co-head of the Investment Banking arm and a member of the executive committee.El Shenety earned his bachelor’s degree in science from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Alexandria University, and his Executive MBA from AUC School of Business. He also holds postgraduate studies degrees from London Business School (LBS), and Cass Business School (CASS).

Comments restricted to single pageCapital as the co-head of the Investment Banking arm and a member of the executive committee.El Shenety earned his bachelor’s degree in science from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Alexandria University, and his Executive MBA from AUC School of Business. He also holds postgraduate studies degrees from London Business School (LBS), and Cass Business School (CASS)

The 2020 Women on Boards Annual Monitoring Report contains the analyzed data of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) listed companies, the banking sector, public enterprise companies and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) companies. The women on boards indicator have significantly improved from 10% in 2019 to 13% in 2020, reflecting a positive improvement towards achieving Egypt’s vision 2030 and SDG goals.

The 2020 Egypt Women on Boards Annual Monitoring Report is provided by Women on Boards Observatory that was developed by AUC School of Business Executive Education unit within the framework of the UN Women-ILO joint program (JP) “Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work for Women in Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine”, which is implemented in partnership with the National Council for Women and the Ministry of Manpower and is generously funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

UN Women Egypt partnered with the American University in Cairo to equip and expand a pool of women to be placed in senior positions and corporate boards through capacity.

building activities and organizational culture training, to produce a monitoring report on the percentage of women on boards, build the capacity of women-owned businesses in market-related skills, and develop Egyptian board-ready women database.

The Fairwork Egypt 2021 Report presents the first round of Fairwork ratings for the Egyptian platform economy. The report evaluates the working conditions of seven digital labour platforms spanning four different sectors: ride-hailing, courier-delivery, tutoring, and home services. The platforms scores range from 0 to 5 out of 10, highlighting the existing gaps in labour standards across the board.

Following the rise in internet penetration rate from only 30% in 2010 to 54% in 2020, gig work has offered increased opportunities to find work easily, especially for workers in the informal economy, women and unemployed educated youth. Nevertheless, there are issues with the gig work model. The Fairwork report for Egypt examines the working conditions in the platform economy, with the aim to help improve conditions, protections and benefits to workers.

Ride-hailing services were the first type of gig work to break into the Egyptian market, with the launch of Uber in 2014. Since then, there has been an expansion in platform services beyond ride-hailing, particularly in the delivery sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has further catalysed this trend, leading to a 230% surge in demand for delivery services alone in Egypt. Nevertheless, and despite a growing number of new platforms, the platform economy still represents a small niche within Egypt’s large informal economy. It is estimated to include anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 workers,  about 90% of whom are Uber drivers. While Egypt’s platform economy is dominated by multinational ride-hailing companies, there is a budding local scene of start-ups, some of which are included in this report.

In Egypt, the majority of gig workers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees. This is one reason why gig workers are often mislabelled and lumped within statistics on informal workers. In March 2021, the Egyptian government announced that it planned to “identify and support 2 million gig workers in the country by the end of this year”, according to Labour Ministry spokesman Haitham Saad El-Din. In order to do so, the Ministry plans to register gig workers’ employment status as “irregular employment”, which will enable workers to access free social security insurance including healthcare coverage, life insurance and disability cover, and other state welfare programs such as the previously administered three-months coronavirus grant. Being registered as “irregular” workers will allow for more protection for platform workers, while also forcing employers to adjust their employer-employee relationships thereby giving workers more rights. It is still unclear how the Ministry’s plans will unfold, but this represents a positive effort by policy makers to be inclusive of platform workers.

ESCA Ecole de Management and IAV Hassan II (the Moroccan Agronomy and Veterinary Institute) consolidate their partnership on an innovative initiative with the launching of an MBA programme, in January 2020. This alliance aims to support structuring projects in the agricultural sector, and to contribute to the development of modern agriculture and rural economy, by training both active engineers and executives in high-level management.

ESCA Ecole de Management has been committed to bring its expertise and knowledge to train engineers and senior managers around leadership and management.

The ESCA MBA program remains in line with the best international standards, it is focused on developing leadership and decision-making in an emerging context. It is mainly dedicated for senior managers and gathers various domains like engineering, health, and topography.”