The Higher Institute of Biotechnology Beja (ISBB) is confronted to the problem of recruitment of its graduates.
When Radhouane Gdoura, coordinator for the Tunisian side asked me to take part in the project, I saw a real opportunity to propose solutions to the unemployment problem that our graduates in life sciences are facing today.

Since December 2013, we have been conducting various activities in this project for:

• students: internships in companies, assistance in job search before graduation.
• professionals: events to promote research and organization of lifelong learning and tailor-made training courses. We have also signed agreements with industry partners. This enabled us to strengthen the relationships between our Institute, support services in Beja and some companies.

Finally, the setting-up of the Office of Corporate Partnership (BPP) at the Institute in September 2014 is to be pointed out. It has been a real breakthrough for teachers and students. The career forum and job fair as well as the lifelong training activities for industry partners organized by the BPP are key activities that will be maintained in our Institute in the long-term. 

I spend on average 3 half-days per week working on the project. This involvement has given me the opportunity to strengthen my collaborations with colleagues from European and Tunisian universities and allowed me to gain real experience coordinating activities involving several socio-economic and academic partners 

All our collaborations have gone very well, despite small obstacles sometimes. I appreciated the rigour of our European partner universities as well as their approach and management of the graduates’ professionalization issue. Our first working meeting in February 2013 at AGROCAMPUS OUEST (in Rennes) remains one of my best memories of this Tempus project.
I highly recommend to any motivated colleague to participate and coordinate such projects in order to gain project management experience and strengthen collaborations with foreign partners.