Rewriting the Future of Work

With FBR@WORK, EOF is supporting the Tunisian Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training to Align Skills with Opportunity 

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The world of work is being rewritten in real time. In Tunisia, millions of young people are training for jobs that may not exist, while employers struggle to fill the ones that do. Meanwhile, the rapid development of artificial intelligence is transforming industries faster than education systems can adapt, further exacerbating this quiet crisis of skills. The gap between what we teach and what the labour market demands has rarely been wider and more consequential.

Tunisia sits at a sharp edge of that divide. The country’s unemployment rate remains among the highest in the region, hovering around 16 percent, with youth and women disproportionately affected. Among young people, joblessness reaches roughly 36 percent, and among women with higher education, more than one in three are unemployed — twice the rate of men. The underlying challenge is a deep skills mismatch: around 58,000 graduates enter the labour market each year, many from higher education, competing for 40,000 to 60,000 jobs that often require lower qualifications. At the same time, 77 percent of businesses are concentrated in coastal regions, leaving inland areas with fewer opportunities and greater vulnerability. 

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training (MEFP) partnered with the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to launch FBR@WORK, a new outcomes-based skills and employment programme designed to reconnect learning with opportunity and align public ambition with market reality.  

Implemented in partnership with Tunisia’s National Employment Agency (ANETI) and four consortia of local partners, FBR@WORK is an ambitious pilot aiming to build evidence to inform national policymaking, laying the foundation for sustainable employment outcomes across Tunisia.

Linking Public Ambition and Private Reality 

FBR@WORK challenges an old assumption: that more training automatically leads to employment. Instead, it focuses on measurable results: young people finding sustainable jobs and staying employed in the long-term. Payments to partners are tied not to specific activities or hours delivered but to verified outcomes. Under FBR@WORK, service providers are paid only if participants complete a skills-training cycle, find a permanent job, and remain employed for at least 6 months. FBR@WORK provides implementing partners with the space and flexibility to test different approaches, course-correct, and innovate in order to identify the most effective activities to achieve the desired outcomes. This model pushes public and private actors to collaborate more closely, aligning incentives and creating a feedback loop between what employers need and what training providers deliver. It’s a system built on accountability and partnership rather than compliance and procedure. 

In early October, ANETI signed individual Memoranda of Understanding with each of FBR@WORK’s implementing partners, formalising their cooperation in the context of this programme. Under the agreement, ANETI will help recruit participants through its national network of employment offices and social media channels – including via a recent webinar for prospective participants co-hosted with representatives from the MEFP and implementing partners. ANETI will also provide monthly stipends to youth during training and support tracking of young people’s progress into the labour market. Coordination between local ANETI branches, NGOs, and private companies is now embedded in the design — a shift from parallel efforts to integrated delivery. 

At the signing ceremony in Tunis, government and partner representatives described the initiative as part of a larger movement, one that is reshaping how Tunisia approaches the labour market’s skills mismatch, youth inclusion, sector needs, and public service reform. 

From Training to Employment And Retention

Implementation of FBR@WORK is already underway. Education for Employment (EFE) Tunisie, in partnership with SAGE, a Tunisian manufacturer of automotive interiors, has launched the first training cohort: ten young women completing about 70 hours of combined technical and soft skills instruction. 

The training was co-developed with the employer to ensure immediate relevance. Technical modules led by SAGE are paired with EFE Tunisie’s sessions on communication, teamwork, and adaptability — the human skills that often determine whether a placement becomes a career. 

By involving businesses from the design stage, FBR@WORK closes the gap between education and employment that has long constrained Tunisia’s economy. In the coming months, other implementing partners will roll out their own cohorts across sectors such as agriculture, hospitality, and digital services, each tailored to regional realities. 

Systemic Reform, Not a One-Off 

The foundation for this collaboration was laid through the World Bank’s GO4Youth initiative, funded by the European Union. GO4Youth aims to create a dynamic employment system that integrates more job seekers into the labour market by strengthening coordination among public institutions, the private sector, and civil society. 

Since 2021, the programme has supported the professionalisation of Tunisia’s employment ecosystem, modernising ANETI’s services and operations, in alignment with its Vision 2030 plan for reform. 

Through this initiative, ANETI has begun redesigning its services for both jobseekers and employers, introducing digital tools and data systems that improve efficiency and transparency. The World Bank also provided valuable technical assistance during FBR@WORK’s design phase, helping local organisations strengthen their proposals and build partnerships capable of delivering measurable impact for Tunisian youth. 

EOF’s collaboration with the World Bank reflects a shared conviction: that the transformation of employment systems depends less on isolated projects and actors than on the structures that link them — policy, data, and coordination, to deliver high-quality and market-responsive solutions. In this sense, FBR@WORK is not an experiment but part of a broader movement toward evidence-based decision-making. 

A Generation Ready to Work 

For ANETI, FBR@WORK offers a proving ground for its Vision 2030 reforms: digital, decentralised, and outcome-focused. For the broader Government of Tunisia, it signals an agile approach to employment policy, one that rewards results, values partnerships, and treats young people as drivers of growth. 

FBR@WORK also places a strong emphasis on women’s participation, designing interventions that test and refine what works best to strengthen their skills, expand access to training, and support their transition into sustainable employment. Each cohort is structured to ensure that women’s aspirations and practical needs are reflected in programme delivery. 

Over the next three years, FBR@WORK will help drive a quiet, yet crucial transformation — one that reconnects human potential with real opportunity and begins to rewrite the social contract around work itself.