Madrid, Dubai and Washington, D.C.:– Education For Employment (EFE) and Citi Foundation celebrated their eighth year of collaboration in 2021 by launching the project “Providing Opportunities for Work and Empowering Resilience” to create economic opportunities for unemployed youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

About 1 in 3 young people in the region are unemployed. Thanks to the EFE-Citi Foundation partnership dating back from 2013, to date 3,600 young people have developed the most-in-demand soft and technical skills and joined the world of work with confidence and hope.

As Elissar Farah Antonios, MENA Cluster Head at Citi, highlighted, “this collaboration reflects Citi’s and EFE’s shared belief that with the right skills and economic opportunities, young people can transform their lives, uplift their families and contribute to their communities.”

Throughout the past years, trainees in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have developed the necessary skills for a successful job search – from researching job openings and writing a CV, to performing well in an interview –, as well as highly-demanded soft and technical skills such as communication, self-confidence, creativity or sales techniques, among others, and have been connected to decent jobs in each country, improving not only their livelihoods but also those of their families and communities. This collective effort is part of Citi Foundation’s initiative “Pathways to Progress”, which aims to support one million youth worldwide by 2023, providing them with useful tools to secure employment or start their own businesses.

Programme success has resulted in a partnership renewal through the project “Providing Opportunities for Work and Empowering Resilience 2.0”, which will run from December 2021 until November 2022 and will directly impact the lives of an additional 740 youth, bringing the total number of youth benefitting from the partnership to over 4,300.

To provide the best learning experience, online and in-classroom training sessions will be coupled with workshops and events, allowing trainees and graduates to benefit from the experience of trainers, successful entrepreneurs, employers, Citi and Citi Foundation representatives and other stakeholders, and share the challenges they faced during their job search journey and the transformation into success stories.

Thanks to this support, coupled with that of Accenture, EFE’s long-term partner and world leader in consulting and technological innovation, vulnerable people have also developed further in-demand soft and digital skills and increased their employability through Accenture’s online Learning and Management system, Emplea+, which to date has benefited tens of thousands of women and men. The training content is in constant evolution, informed by thorough market research and conversations with NGOs and private sector companies.

According to Ana Martiningui, CEO of Education For Employment-Europe, “In addition to directly impacting the lives of thousands of youth throughout the region, the EFE-Citi Foundation partnership has allowed us to invest in areas such as strategy, sustainability, new technologies and innovation. It has been and continues to be crucial for Education For Employment’s growth and impact”.

The installation of hiring kiosks in Morocco to innovate and increase EFE’s sourcing capacity and job matching services; the use of a business intelligence tool in Morocco and Tunisia to identify real time job opportunities and the most-in-demand skills in today’s workforce; or support to adapt curricula to market needs, especially following the changes caused by COVID-19, are just a few examples. Thanks to the support of Citi Foundation, Accenture and other partners and employers who invest in talent, since 2006 EFE has been able to impact over 125,500 young people in the MENA.

-Ends-

Tara Sirinyan
Press Office
Middle East
Citi
Tara.sirinyan@citi.com 

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com 

About Citi Foundation and Pathways to Progress

Citi Foundation promotes economic progress and financial inclusion of people in low-income communities around the world. It works with multiple partners to design and implement innovative solutions that empower vulnerable groups (with a specific focus on youth) to build brighter futures for them and their communities. In 2014, Citi Foundation launched Pathways to Progress, a job skills-building initiative aimed at addressing the global challenge of youth unemployment. Since its launch, Citi Foundation has invested over $230 million globally in workforce preparation.

About Education for Employment

Education For Employment (EFE) is the leading nonprofit job placement network in the Middle East and North Africa giving youth the hope and dignity that can transform their future and the world around them. By matching the businesses that need qualified employees with young women and men seeking employment, EFE helps families, communities and companies in the region thrive. Since 2006, locally-run EFE Affiliates in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and support hubs in the USA, Europe, and the UAE, have connected more than 125,500 youth to the world of work while providing 3,600 businesses with the entry-level talent they need to grow. Over 58 percent of EFE’s graduates are young women, reflecting EFE’s special focus on supporting women’s entry into the workforce. To learn more, please visit www.efe.org  and follow EFE on Twitter at @EFE_Global and Facebook at facebook.com/efeglobal. 

About Accenture

In 2013, Accenture launched the initiative “Together for Employment” through Accenture Spanish Foundation, to support vulnerable communities through the creation of employment opportunities. With the collaboration of over 1,700 NGOs, private companies, and public institutions, Accenture creates and implements digital solutions offered at no cost to support job seekers in their journey to employment with over 604,000 people trained and over 108,000 placed in jobs to date.

Additional information may be found at www.accenture.com and Together for Employment.

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