EFE announces the launch of two major North Africa employment and entrepreneurship initiatives

During the PNB-NAPEO US-Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference from January 16th – 18th in Marrakech, EFE and its partners announced the launch of two major initiatives to provide training and entrepreneurship support to youth in North Africa.

The Maghreb Startup Initiative (MSI), the first-ever Maghreb-wide startup initiative for young entrepreneurs in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, will run boot camps, organize competitions that reach interior regions, and help develop viable startups for competition winners in each country. Forming partnerships across the entrepreneurship ecosystem, MSI will bring together incubators and business angels, provide training and mentoring to participants, and follow up with participants to support sustainable startup creation.

With funding from the U.S. Department of State, EFE-Maroc led the first of two Maghreb Cross-border Training of Trainers (ToT) on EFE’s “Workplace Success” curriculum from January 12-15th in Casablanca. Trainers from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco attended the exchange to gain certification to teach EFE’s “Workplace Success” employability skills program in high demand by private sector employers. This Maghreb network of trainers from universities, institutes and non-profits will return to their countries to train young jobseekers and entrepreneurs in ongoing programs, including at EFE-Morocco and EFE-Tunisia. A second cross-border ToT bringing together a different set of 18 trainers from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco will be conducted in the spring of 2012.

Click to learn more about the Maghreb Startup Initiative and the Maghreb Cross-Border Training of Trainers, part of EFE-Maroc’s AL MORAD national expansion.