Employment of young people in Tunisia: is a key issue especially for the graduates of higher education
The education and training policies implemented since 1958 have guaranteed a high level of education in the country. However the employment capacity in the business sector is leading to a chronic and increasing unemployment.
According to several surveys, the average unemployment rate is close to 50% for graduates of higher education with large differences: the unemployment rate is only of 10% for the engineers, 42% for various areas such as – mechanics, chemistry, IT and computer science, business… - whereas 71% of graduates in the field of biological sciences are unemployed. 60% of graduates with a Masters’ degree and 90% of PhDs in life science and technology are unemployed.
This population of students and graduates of the field of life science and technology as well as the universities in charge of the training will be addressed by the Tempus project.
This project is based on several motivations:
- the State is willing to reduce the unemployment rate in Tunisia – as the graduates of higher education in life science and technology are particularly affected
- the necessity for the universities to adapt their study programmes and the contents to the needs of the labour market in order to improve the graduates’ employment possibilities
- the win-win benefits of a cooperation between universities-research-enterprises