Tunis: The Tunisia Tertiary Education for Employability Project (TEEP), also known as PROMESSE, has significantly improved the employability of tertiary education students and strengthened higher education management, benefiting over 22,000 students, 83 percent of whom are women. According to World Bank, Tunisia's higher education system faced a structural mismatch between academic content and labor market needs. This was compounded by limited employment data systems and a limited capacity to adapt degree offerings to industry demand. Universities lacked the tools to conduct self-assessments or develop strategic, results-oriented plans, and quality assurance mechanisms were still being developed. Institutional capacity was fragmented, governance was highly centralized, and financing remained largely input-driven rather than tied to outcomes, leaving graduates with limited preparation for productive employment. The World Bank's central innovation under TEEP was a competitive grant mechanism, the 'Programme d 'Appui à la Qualité' (PAQ), deployed as the primary financing vehicle for higher education reform. The PAQ enabled universities to compete for results-focused subgrants across a range of employment-focused thematic windows, from career guidance and industry co-construction of degree programs to applied research mobility and digital transformation. This model supported the development of institutional capacity and accountability across all 13 public universities and over 186 higher education institutions. The project also strengthened graduate outcome measurement and quality assurance systems. The project drew lessons from previously implemented World Bank Group (WBG) higher education operations and European-funded programs including Erasmus+ and the PRIM research partnership. Complementing the Bank's work, IFC's Employability Assessment Tool included a digital maturity benchmarking piloted in Tunisia, which provided institutions with tailored, data-driven recommendations to strengthen graduate employability s ervices. TEEP enabled all the public universities and 111 university faculties to develop strategic plans to define their specific development priorities based on local, national, and international opportunities, in line with higher education reform priorities. These strategic plans were operationalized by leveraging competitive grants funded by TEEP to strengthen university and faculty management capacity. More than 4,000 students obtained certification in transferable ICT, language, and communication skills against the initial target of 2,400. Moreover, 200 PhD and postdoctoral researchers carried out applied research within companies and institutions, fostering skills transfer and innovation. The project has also contributed to the World Bank Group's Jobs and Gender agendas by strengthening skills, quality, and labor market relevance across Tunisia's public universities. The share of students securing employment before graduation rose from 22 percent in 2019 to 55 percent in 2023, and the share of gradua tes taking more than six months to find a job declined from 29 percent in 2019 to just 3 percent in 2023. The overall employment rate among tertiary graduates rose from 68 percent in 2016 to 76 percent in 2024. The TEEP project introduced a transparent, results-oriented higher education financing model by institutionalizing competitive grants (PAQs) with clear objectives, performance reviews, and systematic results tracking. This model proved effective and has since been adopted to finance other nationally driven initiatives through the state budget beyond TEEP. The WBG's continued engagement is anchored in its Strengthening Tertiary Education for Employability, Innovation and Resilience (STEEIR) project from IBRD, which builds directly on TEEP's achievements.