Two days in Cairo brought together organizations, businesses, business networks and institutions from across the Mediterranean to strengthen cooperation around youth employability, skills development and international mobility.
On 28 and 29 September 2026, the HorizonCraft partnership met in Cairo for two days dedicated to the future of young people, their skills and their opportunities in an increasingly interconnected labour market.
The first day brought project partners together to review the progress made so far and, above all, to connect the different dimensions of HorizonCRAFT: training, engagement of young people and companies, internships, communication, sustainability and the next stages of implementation. The Steering Committee meeting created a common space where organisations working with young people, representatives of the business sector and Mediterranean partners could align their work and prepare the activities ahead.
But the Cairo meeting was about more than project management. It reflected one of the central ideas behind HorizonCraft: youth employability cannot be strengthened by one sector acting alone.
Young people need skills, but they also need real opportunities to use them. Training providers need to understand how the labour market is changing. Companies need access to emerging talent. Associations and youth organisations can help connect individual aspirations with opportunities, while institutions and business networks can create the conditions for these connections to grow and last.
This cross-sector approach became even more visible on 29 September during the conference “Building the Future Workforce – Connecting Skills, Education and Employers across the Mediterranean & Egypt”, held at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel in Cairo.)
The conference brought the discussion beyond the project partnership, creating a broader dialogue on two issues at the heart of HorizonCRAFT: how internships and work-based learning can help bridge the gap between education and employment, and how cross-border mobility can become a genuine opportunity for professional and personal growth.
Representatives from education, business, civil society and Mediterranean organisations contributed different perspectives to the conversation. This diversity was not simply a feature of the event: it is part of the method HorizonCraft is trying to build.
Because employability is not only about teaching a new skill. It is about creating an ecosystem in which young people, employers, educators, associations, business networks and institutions can understand one another and work together.
The Cairo meeting also showed the value of the Euro-Mediterranean dimension of the project. Partners and speakers from different countries, professional backgrounds and cultural contexts worked around the same question: what skills will young people need? How can education and employment be brought closer together? How can mobility across borders become a learning experience with lasting value?
For HorizonCraft, cooperation becomes meaningful when it creates opportunities. And those opportunities begin by bringing people together.
Last Update
30/09/2026
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