Moving forward: Taqaddam returns to Egypt

Taqaddam 2017 has officially kicked off with our facilitators Lewis and Caroline flying out to Egypt. Three student workshops were delivered and this year teachers took part in a workshop of their very own.

• 12 teachers took part in teacher training.
• 340 students joined Workshop 1.
• Seven student ambassadors shared their experiences.
• Two teacher champions supported all the workshops.
• 58 spaghetti towers were built!

We caught up with the different people involved who all helped to make the launch of the second year of Taqaddam in Egypt a success.

Meet the facilitators

Lewis and Caroline returned this year to deliver Taqaddam 2017 in its new and developed form. Through interactive and exciting workshops they helped young people aged 15 to 16 to build their confidence and acquire the skills they need to navigate the challenges of today’s interconnected world.

What were your highlights?

‘The young people of course! Really willing to try new things and get involved in the activities’ – Caroline

‘Seeing how enthusiastic everyone involved is – from the project team to the teachers who take on the challenge of delivering the Taqaddam lessons in schools all the way to the staff at our host school.’ – Lewis

Taqaddam teachers

This year the Spark and Mettle facilitators also ran a workshop for teachers to explore different ways that they can use Taqaddam in school. There was lots of positive feedback from the teachers who are looking forward to using the interactive learning methods in their own classrooms.

‘I will be able to change some of my teaching tools or methods, apply some of the ideas shared today with my students, work on my own strengths, and even more, be able to support my students to do so as well.’

Taqaddam students

With over 300 young people taking part in the workshops, there was a real buzz as the students were inspired and made more aware of their own potential.

‘I am learning so many skills that will benefit me in my life and it gave me a little self-confidence – it was amazing. ‘

‘I discovered I have many abilities that I haven’t discovered about myself yet.’

‘I think that today was extremely great, this day helped me to get out the other skills inside of me. You made this day one of my great days.’

For many students, this is just the beginning of their Taqaddam journey – the next stop for them is going back to school to make more discoveries and put all their new skills to work.

About Taqaddam

Taqaddam, meaning ‘move forward’ in Arabic, aims to support young people to build confidence and develop personal skills as they leave school. The programme has been developed by and is run in partnership with HSBC and the British Council. The content for the programme has been developed by Spark+Mettle, part of the Goodall Foundation.