Education For Employment (EFE)

Education For Employment (EFE) envisions a future in which young people in the Middle East and North Africa have the opportunity to reach their potential through careers that enable them to contribute positively to their families, their societies, and the world.

EFE seeks to achieve this transformative change by addressing the challenge at two levels. First, EFE helps young people gains skills, secure a career and improve their quality of life while also becoming involved as active citizens in their community. Second, EFE promotes systemic change within public educational institutions in the MENA region to deliver quality career-oriented education that meets market demand. Both of these goals require the building of public-private partnerships with local and international businesses, the education sector, community-based organizations, other non-profits, international organizations, public policy entities, and governments to address youth unemployment, its causes, and possible solutions.

EFE takes a very simple and practical yet innovative approach to serving youths, starting with employers. In this demand-driven strategy, EFE identifies sectors of the economy that offer solid potential for growth and job creation but lack appropriately qualified personnel. EFE then identifies companies that are willing to commit to hiring EFE graduates. By partnering with these companies and with local educational institutions and trainers, EFE develops market-relevant, interactive training courses that are directly linked to job placements for successful graduates. EFE is working to change the mind-sets of employers by showing them that there is an untapped pool of human capital in unemployed youths who receive practical education that equips them with valued skills. More than 4,400 youth have graduated from EFE training programmes across five MENA countries and the Palestinian Territories; 44% of graduates are women.