Escola Europea, lead partner of the YEP MED project — “Youth Employment in the Ports of the Mediterranean” — has recently been honoured with the Blue Skills & Ocean Literacy Award at the 2025 WestMED Initiative* Stakeholder Conference (Tunis, 28 November 2025). This recognition crowns YEP MED as a successful and impactful project in the Mediterranean maritime-logistics sector.
Launched in 2020 with a budget of €2.9 million and co-financed under the ENI CBC MED Programme, the predecessor of Interreg NEXT MED, YEP MED set out to tackle a real challenge: closing the skills gap in port-logistics and improving employability among youth — especially NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) — and women.
The project introduced innovative vocational and technical-vocational education and training (TVET) curricula tailored to port operations, international trade, digitization, environmental sustainability and logistics. By partnering public authorities, port operators, SMEs, training centres, and VET providers across seven Mediterranean countries (Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, France, Jordan), YEP MED created a cross-border network that merges academic training with real labour-market needs.
A key innovation was the adoption of the Port Virtual Lab (PVL) — a digital simulation platform that enables immersive, realistic training in port logistics operations. Through PVL, YEP MED democratized access to port-logistics skills, opening “the gates of our ports without physically opening them.”
The results speak for themselves:
- 3,683 students trained.
- 161 courses delivered.
- 72 trainers certified.
- 1,093 internships and job placements across 514 companies.
- Gender-balanced participation: 47 % women, 53 % men.
More than just numbers, YEP MED has built a lasting “blue-skills ecosystem” — many port communities, companies and training institutes continue to use the PVL simulators, offer internships, and onboard new institutions.
We at Interreg NEXT MED congratulate all partners, institutions and young people involved, and we reaffirm our commitment to fostering more projects that create real, tangible opportunities for people across the Mediterranean.
*The WestMED Initiative is supported by the European Commission, as a follow up to the Union for the Mediterranean’s Ministerial Declaration in 2015, to help achieve a safer and more secure maritime space, create a smarter and more resilient Blue Economy and improve the maritime governance for the Western Mediterranean.
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