HOMERe: A platform for increasing the number of internships in the Mediterranean
On 2 March 2016, the regional HOMERe consortium will sign a charter at the Villa Méditerranée in Marseille that is set to bring new life to the programme. HOMERe (High Opportunity for Mediterranean Executive Recruitment) was created by the RMEI (Réseau Méditerranéen des Ecoles d’ingénieurs – Mediterranean network of engineering schools) and Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur de la France (French foreign trade advisors) and other partners, including the Office of Economic Cooperation for the Mediterranean and Middle East (OCEMO). It seeks to connect young graduates with the Mediterranean business world through international internships.“The SEMSEM digital platform developed by the University of Montpellier will help put businesses looking for students and young people looking for internships in touch with each other. We hope that this high-performance tool will help us meet our ambitious goal of securing 1000 internships per year,” explains Léo Vincent, President of the RMEI. A partnership with Erasmus + could also extend internships to Bac+2 and Bac+3 level students.
In an effort to promote the HOMERe programme to as many students as possible, partners, and particularly the Université de Bretagne Occidentale Brest, are sponsoring a crew taking part in the 4L Trophy, in which some 3,200 students compete in a rally raid behind the wheel of the legendary Renault 4L. “These kinds of events boost our visibility,” says Léo Vincent. “Young people have high expectations in today’s unstable political and economic climate. Brilliant graduates are having a hard time finding internships abroad. Belonging to the Mediterranean region is an advantage on which we need to focus. We need to make a reality of the slogan “Proud to be Mediterranean”.”