The project builds capacity of selected faculties of education and higher education institutions in the MENA region by introducing international best practices from the EU in three areas: action- research, effective practicum and school-based teacher CPD. The project aims to strengthen partnerships between universities and schools. Schools are social institutions constituting the work place of future teachers. Effective teacher recruitment, employment, deployment and retention should begin with effective practicum during the universities years, followed by strong mentorship and professional development programs during the induction beginning years and continued lifelong learning through research during the mature years of teaching. Faculties of education need to be relevant and engaged with all these various initiatives just as universities would link and reach out to enterprises and other work places to ease the transition from learning to earning and produce relevant graduates to the job market. Learning resulting from this project will feed into two regional centers of excellence (QRTA and PAT) for sustainable capacity building of higher education institutions across the region. In addition, this project aims to create a collaborative network between faculties of education in some EU countries and some selected partners in the MENA region. Emphases are placed on research, documenting best practices in the EU, taking stock of the situation in the MENA region, exchange study visits between all partners and the dissemination of the results of training, experience and collaborative learning in workshops and publications. It is hoped that as partner countries are exposed to the EU networks they will reflect upon and review their approaches to teacher preparation and will adopt modern techniques of doing student practicum in collaboration with schools, will engage in action research, and will help design and implement effective CPD in schools.