Getting Started in the Working World: New HP/Public Sector Collaboration for Tunisia’s Youth

Nov 30, 2012 10:00 AM ET

HP Data Central Blog

By Michael_Thacker

What do young adults need to get started in the working world? An important collaboration, investing USD 3.3 million in support of Tunisia’s youth (announced in November 2012), believes that young people today need increased access to better-quality services designed to support young entrepreneurs by providing them with a foundational education, services and mentorship. Young adults also need job opportunities, which can be best achieved through supporting direct capacity-building for enterprises with high employment potential.

Ambitious aims such as these require collaboration between the private and public sectors.  HP is proud to offer this support to the young people of Tunisia in a new collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the government of Italy (Tunisia’s neighbor, seeking shared prosperity as partners in the Union for the Mediterranean).

HP’s Vice President of Sustainability and Social Innovation, Gabi Zedlmayer, says the multi-million dollar private/public sector collaboration should “equip young people in Tunisia with relevant entrepreneurship skills to help create much needed new jobs”. The project focuses on the HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE) program, which recently expanded to offer all of its IT and entrepreneurial training courses online. As Tunisia maintains political and commercial links with other Arabic and French-speaking countries, the potential also exists for HP LIFE to expand into new geographies through this collaboration.