France and Tunisia signed a new agreement aimed at the professional reintegration of Tunisian youth without diplomas or qualifications.
This agreement will enable the piloting of a new system for new schools run by the Tunisian Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, funded by a four million euro grant from the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented by the European Institute for Development. Cooperation and Development (IECD), an international solidarity organization specializing in the professional integration of young people in difficulty.
The Tunisian Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, the French Ambassador to Tunisia and the Regional Director for North Africa of the French Agency for Development (AFD) officially announced the creation of the first “new opportunity” in Tunisia in the cities of Kairouan and Sousse. Devices “are intended for Tunisian youth between the ages of 18 and 30 who have left their studies without obtaining a diploma or a professional qualification.
The number of Tunisian youth who are neither in the education system, nor in work, nor in training, is especially high in Tunisia. According to the National Institute of Statistics, more than half a million young Tunisians live in this situation.
By offering a one-on-one course and alternating periods of immersion in the company and personal support, this system provides these young people with an opportunity for professional and social integration via an employment contract, entry or return to vocational training or the establishment of an independent activity.
Faced with a particularly alarming unemployment rate among young people aged 15-24 (41.7% in 2021), which is driving many of them to leave the country, the Tunisian government decided to call in experts from Mediterranean countries, who faced similar challenges. Implement solutions that allow young people to reintegrate socially and professionally.
Thus, the Mediterranean New Opportunities Network (MedNC), which brings together many successful experiences in France, Lebanon, Morocco and Portugal, has mobilized to support the thinking of the Tunisian Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment. The experts of this network worked for a year under the auspices of a national steering committee in order to propose a conceptual and technical solution appropriate to the Tunisian context.
The agreement signed on 15 April 2022 records the actual establishment of the first two new projects in Sousse and Kairouan. 940 young people will be able to benefit from this support over the next three years. The experience gained can be used by the Tunisian authorities in developing their national youth policy.
This pilot project will be implemented by the European Institute for Cooperation and Development (IECD), an expert from the French association in youth integration projects and active in 15 countries, in partnership with the Tunisian National Agency for Employment and Independent Employment, the Vocational Training Network, institutions, local economic companies and civil society.
Since its establishment in 1988, the IECD has supported human and economic development in the countries in which it operates. She leads and coordinates the Mediterranean New Opportunity Network (MedNC) responsible for building the capacities of actors in training and social and professional integration in the Mediterranean Basin in order to improve the access of young dropouts to employment and training.
The project will be financed by France, through a grant of €4 million from the French Development Agency, and by Tunisia, which will mobilize the National Employment Fund to support and take charge of the beneficiaries.
I communicated
Published on 04/18/22 08:33
