In a highly globalised world of employment, where the approximate cost of training a young person for the necessary qualifications is estimated at $50,000, the “brain drain” represents a key economic loss for countries that do not manage to keep their talents at home. 

The HOMERe programme has recently been certified by the Union for the Mediterranean and is part of this drive to focus on the mobility of young people between the Northern and Southern/Eastern Mediterranean, so that their skills can benefit the countries in which they received their initial education

The programme was created on the initiative of three partners: the French Foreign Trade Advisors (CCEF), Campus France and RMEI (a network of around one hundred prestigious higher education institutes in 16 Mediterranean countries). They were joined by OCEMO and local trade institutions in the relevant Mediterranean countries.    

HOMERe is an innovative programme to promote the mobility of young Mediterranean graduates across nine Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia), which aims to improve their skills and their employment prospects.   

It gives international businesses, which are already active in the Mediterranean or with plans for future development, the chance to identify local young talents, train them via an international work placement, and then recruit them in their home country.

HOMERe offers four key advantages for participating businesses:

• they host outst anding talent(s) during their work placements;
• they ensure that interns export the corporate culture acquired during their work placements to partners (subsidiaries, joint-ventures, suppliers, clients, subcontractors, etc.);
• they provide countries and partner businesses with ambassadors who can st and up for the interests of the company that trained them;
• they contribute to maintaining talents in future growth areas, guaranteeing tomorrow’s markets. 

• Identify a selection of young talents who are suited to the position available and suggest them to the company, If the position cannot be filled, HOMERe can also offer it to young people within that country, who have studied abroad and have the required skills,
  
• Facilitate administrative procedures associated with the mobility of young people for international work placements, which will take place in the partner business headquarters, with the goal of immersing them in the corporate culture and exposing them to company operation and challenges,
  
• Suggest mentors to help young people during their work placements abroad (support for associated problems, such as accommodation, etc.) This will help placement supervisors to focus on key aspects for increasing the professional skills of young people. The placement supervisors appointed by the company seek to provide young people with job training and a taste of corporate culture so that they are ready to work upon their return.

The programme has been certified by the Union for the Mediterranean. 

The water company, Société des Eaux de Marseille, has selected two young IT engineers from Morocco for a six-month work placement in the Marseille subsidiary, Somei, before recruiting them in their Moroccan subsidiary.