Boosting employment through job intermediation and placement services in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries: UfM organises workshop in Barcelona

Barcelona, 16 October 2014 – With the overarching goal of fostering regional employment opportunities, and under the framework of the Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs (Med4Jobs), the UfM Secretariat hosted a workshop on job intermediation and placement services in North Africa and the Levant. The workshop took place on 15 October at its headquarters in Barcelona.

Unlike employability programmes and projects, initiatives for labour market intermediation in Euro-Mediterranean countries are rather limited and do not benefit from the same level of funding. Yet, they comprise a key element to improving employment in the region. Hence, the UfM Secretariat held this dialogue platform to foster the exchange of best practices on job intermediation, facilitate cooperation between local and regional actors, identify successful practices for potential replication and up-scaling as well as explore areas for possible UfM intervention and support under Med4Jobs.

During the workshop participants discussed the idea of establishing a Euro-Mediterranean network to exchange knowledge of best practices and innovative programmes on job intermediation and define fields where public, private and non-profit partners can deliver complementary services. This network would also aim at identifying gaps in the labour market that could be addressed through the development of concrete projects and the use of electronic databases.

The UfM Secretariat places job intermediation as a major component of the Med4Jobs initiative. In line with this priority the UfM Secretariat convened this first technical workshop, which gathered influential participants mainly from public employment institutions, development agencies, the private sector, international organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders working in the field of job intermediation.