A Training of Trainees (ToT) programme was delivered at Heliopolis University from 10-15 November, as part of the MOBILISE project. The ToT aimed to strengthen the capacity of the university’s Entrepreneurship Centre to co-develop and prepare the Entrepreneurship track of the MOBILISE Return Programme.

The four-day programme was designed as a hands-on workshop, bringing together nine staff members of the Heliopolis University Entrepreneurship Centre to work jointly on the content, structure, and delivery approach of the Entrepreneurship programme for MOBILISE returnees. The ToT created a collaboration space to adapt entrepreneurship methodologies and tools to the local university context using practice-oriented and locally relevant approaches.

Participants worked together on key topics such as entrepreneurship practices, facilitation techniques, competencies of a successful trainer, agribusiness ideation, ecosystem dynamics, and design thinking. On the fourth day, participants facilitated selected modules and received constructive feedback, contributing directly to the refinement of the Entrepreneurship programme and its future implementation.

As a next step, the trained staff will deliver an entrepreneurship bootcamp at the end of January for MOBILISE returnees from Heliopolis University and Kafr El Sheikh University. The bootcamp forms part of the MOBILISE Return Programme and aims to support participants in their transition into the Egyptian labor market by enabling them to develop viable agribusiness ideas into concrete business projects, either through the creation of start-ups or the development of existing ventures.