The UfM promotes young talent in the region
- The UfM brought together young entrepreneurs and leaders from both shores of the Mediterranean and beyond to showcase their work, build synergies, seek complementarities, and reflect on the future of work in the aftermath of the recent disruptions. The Conference also served to showcase the work done on youth guarantee schemes in the Western Balkans Region.
Outcome Document – UfM Conference on Youth Entrepreneurship and the Future of Work
Tirana, 13 June 2023. Acting upon pertinent Ministerial Declarations and anchoring to the “UfM Youth Strategy 2030: Euro-Mediterranean Youth towards a Common Goal”, the UfM Secretariat partnered with the German Development Cooperation to hold the UfM Conference on Youth Employment and the Future of Work in the Albanian capital Tirana on 13 June 2023 under the auspices of the Ministry of Finances and Economy of the Republic of Albania, with a focus on youth-led organisations and networks, national and regional youth support programs, as well as entrepreneurial skills for the future. The event was co-sponsored by the European Union and benefitted from the active engagement of the European Delegation of the European Union to Albania and the Young Professionals Network (YPN).
The Conference, which brought together 60 participants, forms part of the UfM Roadmap on Employment and Labour 2022-2025, implementing the 2022 Marrakech UfM Ministerial Declaration. Among the key messages expressed by the panelists were the need to invest in an enabling ecosystem conducive to the emergence of innovative startups, and the importance of tackling the triple challenge cited by most of these startups, namely the need for funding, know-how and network. They stressed the fact that the young generation(s) now think differently, and that, in addition to being more flexible and tech-savvy, they are already mentalized to embrace a career of transitory stations, as opposed to the one-employer-career model that is becoming obsolete. They cited green, blue and digital skills as the most pertinent, and also insisted on the ameliorating value of soft and transferable skills.
