Youth unemployment, especially among young graduates, is reaching dramatic proportions, with multiple social consequences. The main causes of this phenomenon are based on the following factors :

• the small size of the economic network in the face of an ever-increasing demand for employment
• the insufficient exploitation of potential employment opportunities in our country; and above all, the increasing demand by companies for a directly operational workforce (i.e. one that already has professional experience), in the face of a training system that is poorly adapted to the real needs of the labour market. This situation is all the more worrying when we know that nearly 70% of young people who enter the labour market have no qualifications in terms of profession.

It is in response to this concern that the NEF, as part of its "strategy and support measures for young people", has designed and developed the Graduate Employment Programme (PED) with the aim of facilitating the integration of young graduates into the production circuit, through on-the-job training.

The strategy of this interactive "training/pre-employment" programme is based on the sharing (50/50) between the NEF and the company of the compensation costs paid to the trainees.

The implementation procedure is very flexible and is as follows :

1. Application by the company to join the programme;
2. Assessment of the company's capacity to meet the objectives of the "PED".

3. Selection of the candidate(s) from the NEF file on the basis of the profile desired by the employer. This selection is made by the company with the support of NEF Employment Counsellors ;
4. Subscription of the "PED" contract (between the NEF, the company and the beneficiary) with a detailed training programme;
5. Follow-up of the candidate in the company.

The young person selected for the "PED" will benefit from a 12-month training period in the company during which he or she learns a trade under the supervision of one or more tutors. Generally, the young trainee is operational before the end of this period and thus increases his or her chances of being permanently recruited by the company.

If the trainee is retained at the end of the traineeship (with an employment contract of at least two years), the NEF will contribute to the payment of half of the first three months' basic salary.

Objective The "PED" is a pre-employment internship programme which aims to integrate young graduates with no professional experience into the production circuit and who are looking for a job.

More specifically, it allows :

• the exploitation, with a view to the qualification of young graduates without a profession and/or without work experience, of the potential for professional training existing in the companies;
• the acquisition by young graduates of practical experience, thereby enriching their curriculum vitae
• the provision of an income for young trainees;

Thus, this programme, which falls within the framework of on-the-job training, enables the beneficiaries not only to gain qualifications but also to acquire a first experience in a company. Thus, in a context where a large proportion of graduates who enter the labour market have no profession and work experience, the " PED " appears to be an appropriate solution to meet the requirements of many companies for which, apart from qualification, work experience is considered a determining criterion for hiring.