The ALF Euro-Mediterranean Young Professionals Programme is a full-time professional experience designed for young professionals at the beginning of their careers who are eager to expand their intercultural expertise through dedicated work. The programme aims to empower talented graduates under the age of 30 from the 43 countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region by providing them with firsthand professional experience in intercultural dialogue. Professionals also benefit by contributing to the Foundation’s mission to foster youth inclusion through empowerment and engagement, enhancing their competitiveness in the job market.

What the Programme Offers:

Successful applicants will begin their professional journey of up to 12 months at the ALF Secretariat in Alexandria, Egypt. During this time, they will:

• Gain invaluable work experience and insights from the daily operations of the ALF Secretariat, understanding practical objectives and goals of intercultural and civil society dialogue
• Work in a vibrant, multicultural, and multilingual setting, which will prepare them for the job market, equipping them with practical skills for navigating the global intercultural dynamic
• Experience professional growth by working in a prestigious intergovernmental entity
• Build a network with like-minded professionals and experts in the field of intercultural dialogue, enriching both their personal and professional life

Young professionals’ fields   

The ALF Euro-Mediterranean Young Professionals Programme 2024 offers young professionals the opportunity to gain a year of professional experience in one of the following five fields:

• Public Policies

Its objective is to facilitate and encourage research community, policy-makers, civil society organisations, and EU and ALF Member States institutions from different disciplines and sectors to collaborate, exchange ideas with the aim to create and disseminate knowledge useful to promote sustainable transformations in intercultural public policies and practices at the Euro-Mediterranean level with human-centred approaches.

• Civil Society

It is dedicated to actively develop exchanges and interactions between the ALF Secretariat and the Heads and grassroots members of ALF Civil Society Networks and to provide structured support to carry out activities and tasks with the aim to give cohesion, engage and mobilise them for the development of intercultural dialogue activities at national and regional levels. Also manages training and mobility programmes at the Euro-Mediterranean scale.

• Corporate Communication

It has an essential role for increasing visibility of the action of the Foundation. By targeting both internal and external communication strands, it ensures that institutional bodies of ALF, its members, and the wider public are all kept in the loop and engaged. Its added value lies in its four main communication tools: the ALF website, the social media outreach, the monthly newsletters, and the Intercultural Dialogue Resource Centre.

• Quality Control

It is a pivotal factor in enhancing performance, establishing the success of implementation, demonstrating the impact of activities, and communicating outcomes to stakeholders, including donors.  It is adopting an evidence-based approach via quantitative and qualitative data collection that goes beyond mere monitoring to ensure continual improvements to ALF programming, enhancing the overall efficiency of the system.

• Fundraising and institutional partnerships

It is a crucial aspect of the ALF’s current strategy of diversification of sources of funding, as it implies the identification of potential funding sources, the conceptualization and elaboration of project proposals and reference frameworks and the identification of suitable partners to joint implementation. It complements the structural action of the Foundation in specific fields where the Foundation has a particular added value, both in terms of methodologies and strategic alliances.

Young professionals will be asked to choose two of the fields detailed above in order of preference and they will be assigned to the ALF Units according to their previous experience and motivation, depending on the specific needs of the ALF Secretariat.