Mediterranean New Chance (MedNC)

Mediterranean New Chance addresses the challenge of socio-professional integration of young people and, particularly, of NEETs, by mobilizing and strengthening cooperation among stakeholders from both rims of the Mediterranean, including second chance schools.

The UfM-labelled regional project Mediterranean New Chance (In French, Méditerranée Nouvelle Chance MedNC) addresses the challenge of socio-professional integration of young people and, particularly, of those youngsters who are not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEETs) by mobilizing and strengthening cooperation among stakeholders from both rims of the Mediterranean, including second chance schools. The project, framed within the Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs (Med4Jobs) and coordinated since the 1^st of January 2018 by the Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement (IECD), is currently being implemented in Algeria, Egypt, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia through capacity building activities and the exchange of innovative education experiences and best practices among partners.

The mission of MedNC is based on three pillars:

• Bring together, within a network, the stakeholders working towards socio-professional integration of young people in the Mediterranean region.
• Promote capacity building activities stimulate innovation and accelerate impact scaling-up.
• Improve socio-professional integration of young people and, in particular, of NEETs and young women.

MedNC ambitions to:

• Strengthen Euro-Mediterranean cooperation among the stakeholders from the public and private sectors, as well as from the civil society, working towards socio-professional integration of young people.
• Bring together the business world and socio-professional integration initiatives targeting young people and, in particular, NEETs and young women.
• Develop synergies between the various programmes on socio-professional integration of young people implemented in the Euro-Mediterranean region in order to help them to enlarge and multiply.
• Raise awareness and influence public policies on the defies of a coherent and innovative offer of socio-professional integration initiatives allowing continuity and pedagogical excellence for those who need it most.

Initiatives from both shores of the Mediterranean face shared challenges

• In France, 124 Schools of the Second Chance, grouped under the E2C-France Network, support each year 15,000 young people that had left the education system without qualification and without employment through the acquisition of skills, the experience in business and support for inclusion.
• In Spain, 32 members including social entities hosting more than 6,000 young people and actors from the education and business sector have joined forces with Escuelas de Segunda Oportunidad asociación Española to develop an innovative educational model, recognized and supported by public authorities, working closely with businesses’ need for skills.
• In Portugal, a network of Second Chance Education initiatives has recently been created from the proposal of the Associação para Educação de Segunda Oportunidade with the involvement of about 30 members and the support of ministerial and local authorities. These national networks cooperate with each other, in particular by developing mobility projects for young people and professionals.
• In Tunisia, university teachers founded the Association Nouvelle Chance Tunisie with the aim of improving the employability of unemployed graduates and facilitating their professional integration through a program inspired by that of the Schools of the Second Chance which has been established to date in six academic institutions and has benefited nearly 179 young people.
• In Algeria, the Miftah Ennajah School, created by the Cevital Group, Danone Djurdjura, Danone Ecosystem and the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the objective of helping young people who have abandoned the school system to acquire the necessary skills to work in the sales sector and in particular among the founding partner companies, already has four centres spread over the national territory that have trained more than 1,000 young people.
• In Morocco, the Al Jisr Association’s mission is to contribute to the awareness and mobilization of private companies for their involvement in education through the sponsorship of schools, and the association L’Heure Joyeuse set ups programs with high social impact in the areas of health, education, guidance and training for the integration of young people in difficult situations.
• In Lebanon, the Semeurs d’Avenir association aims to strengthen the socio-professional integration of young people and vulnerable people through six development projects, impacting more than 8,000 young people in the fields of training and education, vocational guidance in partnership with the relevant ministries, technical colleges and hospitals.
• In Egypt, the Vocational Training and Employment Center was designed by the Alexandria Business Association and the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Egypt (CCIFE) to promote employment through partnerships with industry and to orient and train unemployed citizens and active workers to technical skills.
• In Italy, the Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo (VIS) non-governmental organization deals with development cooperation and international solidarity, with more than 40 regional offices in the world and also through the tools of distance support and support for Salesian missions. VIS is also an educational agency that promotes and organizes awareness-raising activities and that contributes to the education, training and development of children and young people exposed to social risks in developing countries.

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About the promoter and partner institutions

The Mediterranean New Chance (MedNC) is promoted by the European Institute for Cooperation and Development (IECD) which took over the regional coordination of the project on the 1st of January 2018 by replacing the Office of Economic Cooperation for the Mediterranean and the Middle East (OCEMO). MedNC is funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Drosos Foundation.

Founded in 1988, the IECD is a French international solidarity organisation that implements more than 50 development projects in 15 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean, Middle East & North Africa and South East Asia in cooperation with local partners. For the past 30 years, the IECD has developed recognized expertise in four key areas: Education, Vocational Training and Youth Employability, Support to Small Enterprises and Healthcare.

AFD is France’s inclusive public development bank. It engages financing and technical assistance to projects that genuinely improve everyday life, both in developing and emerging countries and in the French overseas provinces. In keeping with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, AFD works in many sectors — energy, healthcare, biodiversity, water, digital technology, professional training, among others — to assist with transitions towards a safer, more equitable, and more sustainable world.

Drosos Foundation is committed to enabling disadvantaged children, young people and young adults to take control of their lives and make a positive contribution within their community. The Foundation promotes skills and creates living conditions which enable these people to fulfil their responsibilities. In this regard, it pursues two complementary strategies: Promoting creative skills and and Promoting economic independence. Drosos Foundation owes its existence to a private endowment. It is ideologically, religiously and politically independent.

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