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Fez — The Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez (UEMF) hosted a signing ceremony this week for a framework partnership agreement linking the university, National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (ANAPEC), General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) Fez-Meknes, and the Digital Development Agency (ADD) around Industry 4.0 skills, training, and employability.
The event brought together university officials, public institutions, business representatives, researchers, and entrepreneurs for a program focused on the future of industrial work. Before the speeches and panel discussion, participants toured UEMF’s technological platforms, including departments and spaces dedicated to civil engineering, 3D printing, CNC machining, robotics, big data, and applied industrial technologies.
The tour helped frame the agreement as more than a ceremonial step. It showed how the university is positioning its campus as a practical bridge between research, training, innovation, and the needs of companies preparing for digital transformation. UEMF presents Fez Smart Factory as a unique Moroccan platform dedicated to industrial innovation, advanced training, and Industry 4.0 projects.
A partnership built around employability
Khadija Essafi, Vice-President in charge of academic and cultural affairs at UEMF, opened the meeting and introduced the institutional context of the ceremony. Her remarks placed the agreement within the university’s broader effort to connect academic expertise with regional economic needs.
Asmae Abadi, a UEMF professor-researcher in industrial engineering and Industry 4.0, moderated the panel discussion. The exchange focused on how companies can move toward industrial modernization while ensuring that young graduates gain the skills required by the labor market.
Tijani Bounahmidi, Vice-President in charge of the University Technology Center at UEMF, said the agreement reflects a shared desire to strengthen youth employability, professional integration, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
“We are organizing this signing ceremony for the framework agreement between the Euro-Med University of Fez, ANAPEC, CGEM, and ADD, to unite our efforts with the goal of strengthening the employability of young people, improving their professional integration, and developing entrepreneurship and innovation,” Bounahmidi told Morocco World News (MWN).
He added that each partner brings a specific role to the table. UEMF contributes through training, entrepreneurship, and innovation, while ANAPEC helps improve professional integration and reduce the gap between companies’ human resources needs and the skills available among job seekers.
ANAPEC’s role in training and insertion
Mohamed Chhiba, Regional Director of ANAPEC Fez-Meknes, described the agreement as a way to combine institutional efforts in support of Industry 4.0 transformation.
“We have just attended the signing ceremony of a framework partnership agreement between four renowned institutions,” Chhiba told MWN. “It is ANAPEC, the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez, CGEM Fez-Meknes, and the Digital Development Agency.”
He said the partnership aims to support “an innovative project” that represents “a first at the national level,” to improve young Moroccans’ employability and help companies respond to growing competitiveness needs in the region.
Chhiba further explained that ANAPEC’s contribution will focus on connecting companies with job seekers, selecting beneficiaries, and contributing to training funding within available budgets and the procedures of the programs it manages. ANAPEC’s official employer services include support for recruitment and measures such as Formation Contractualisée pour l’Emploi (Contractualized Training for Employment).
Employers and the Industry 4.0 shift
Omar Tajmouati, President of CGEM Fez-Meknes, said the agreement connects the main actors needed to make training more relevant to employers.
“The main purpose of this agreement is to connect the trainers, which are the Euro-Med University, the employers, which are the CGEM, and, of course, ANAPEC, which promotes and works in favor of employability,” Tajmouati told MWN.
He said the partnership should encourage training and employability in Industry 4.0 fields by bringing together academic knowledge, private-sector demand, public employment support, and digital development expertise.
ADD, meanwhile, adds the national digital transformation dimension to the partnership. The agency presents itself as a catalyst for Morocco’s digital transformation, giving the agreement an institutional link to broader public efforts around digital development.
The agreement also fits into UEMF’s wider Industry 4.0 ecosystem. Fez Smart Factory is presented by the university as Morocco’s first innovation ecosystem dedicated to Industry 4.0, located at the heart of UEMF and designed to support industrial companies’ digital and ecological transformation.
