Preparing for, Conducting and Evaluating Workshops for Agricultural Technical School Instructors in Egypt

The Agricultural Technical Schools (ATS) of Egypt were designed to prepare skilled workers for the agricultural economy. A project funded by USAID through the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) was designed to prepare ATS instructors for incorporating supervised agricultural internships and agribusiness decision–making skills into their curricula. Workshops were presented, with assistance from university faculty in Egypt, on topics including planning, conducting and evaluating internships, and on selected agribusiness competencies that were relevant to ATS programs. Workshop participants rated the workshops and materials very highly. The ATS instructors also indicated that their competency in teaching the topics had increased as a result of the workshops. The instructors indicated other topics that future workshops could address. The researchers identified a series of lessons learned about conducting workshops in a foreign country and offered recommendations to assist other U.S. faculty in getting involved in international development projects.