More than 300 people (private enterprises, TVET staff institutions, institutional representatives, general public) joined the Open Day events organized by MYSEA project partners during the last weeks; the events played a pillar role in promoting MYSEA project activities and objectives to a wider public, reach new project stakeholders and create synergies; moreover, the events gave partners the opportunity to talk about themselves, their expertise, and their role in the adaptation and implementation of the project activities within their national territories and in the framework of locally-based needs and difficulties, increasing awareness on the benefits of MYSEA – funded by the EU - for the reduction of poverty, and the promotion of innovative, eco-friendly and sustainable market opportunities in the agri-food and waste management sectors. This said, let’s dig a bit in detail on the events.

The two-days event in Lebanon on 26th and 27th of May developed on describing the current state of the art of the waste management and agri-food sectors in Lebanon and on market and systemic constraints – in fact, about 85% of solid waste goes directly to open dumps or landfills instead than receiving a recycling/upscaling process, for i.e., with much waste also accumulating on municipal areas – and from this start imagining new integrated policies and strategies, master planning, economic patterns to be followed, with the parallel effect of implementing efficient vocational training and increasing high-level job opportunities. The event aimed at fostering sector-skills alliances and people-to-people cooperation and initiatives towards promoting interconnection among actors to reflect on national employment and industrial schemes, with the objective of tackling the skills mismatch through oriented training, coaching, mentoring, and on-the-job training. If you missed it and are interested about it, click to this link: https://fb.watch/7cMYmP3dWN/ 

With a similar fashion and with discussions adapted for its national territory, the Tunisian Unity for Social Solidarity MYSEA partner implemented its open day event in Tunisia during the 12th of July. 

It was on training, indeed, that Eurotraining Educational Organization focused during its Open Day event in Greece the 22nd of July. As MYSEA partner responsible for the coordination of the training package, it centered the discussion on project training methodologies, highlighting how TVET institutions, together with private enterprises, will be catalysts for labour inclusion of youth, neets and women in the Mediterranean. Moreover, the event offered the opportunity to network and learn from the experience of similar projects In order to create synergies and maximize results; among them: the MoreThanAJob project; the Erasmus+ VetFest project; the Interreg GR-BU EnvironmentYou project.    

Finally, the open day event in Italy - implemented the 7th of July with a huge participation of panelists and speakers among private enterprises and institutional actors from the regions of Lazio and Sicily – described how the current ongoing research activities and surveys (questionnaires and semi-structured interviews) are key for the construction and design of the above-mentioned training curricula and packages. CIES Onlus – the lead beneficiary and coordinator of MYSEA project – presented the job done by two partners within the research sector, the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Sciences of the University of Palermo and the Jordan University of Science and Technology, for the design and coordination of research activities. In this view, central has been the discussion with a great amount of private actors of the agri-food and waste management sectors during the event, to share on market difficulties and needs, and laying out the ground for future project activities. Here’s the link of the event: https://fb.watch/7cX3n5WBZt/ 

Last but not least, the Jordan University of Science and Technology itself presented its open day event in Jordan on July the 5th, to disseminate project objectives and the research activities on a national level. Synergies between MYSEA and USOLVE projects – both coordinated by JUST - have been found, so they have been presented and discussed during the same event by Prof. Saeb Khresat, president of JUST, under the patronage of H.E Mohammed Al-Nabulsi, the Minister of Youth. Prof. Saeb Khresat in his welcome speech expressed his appreciation to the EU for the funds and support granted to Jordan. Prof. Fahmi Abu Al-Rub, the local coordinator of the two projects acknowledged the importance of these two projects in solving the problem of unemployment among youth, NEETs and women in Jordan through innovative training workshops and courses on blue and green economies.

Dr. Esmat Karadsheh, the coordinator of Eastern Mediterranean Office of the ENI CBC MED projects briefed the audience on the importance of ENI projects in the sustainable development of the target areas and the benefits for the people of these areas.
In addition to MYSEA and U-SOLVE, the activities involved presentations from the stakeholders of both projects and presentations from other ENI projects that are in synergy with MYSEA and U-SOLVE projects. Here is the link to the event: https://fb.watch/7c_eDTdhX2/

It is with these objectives that MYSEA project partners invite economic actors, TVET institutions, youth, neets and women of partner countries to fill in questionnaires they have set up, which are a key tool for the analysis of the state-of-the-art of the economic and social environment for the countries of Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon, and for the preparation of the next phase of the project – that of educational training and job placement. 

Interested in filling the questionnaires? Visit this webpage: https://www.unipa.it/dipartimenti/saaf/progetto-mysea/online-interviews-/

Wishing you a good summer, MYSEA partners welcome interested stakeholders in contacting us to get to know more about the project and discover opportunities for cooperation!