Quality apprenticeships for young people in Burkina Faso
A hundred and fifty young apprentices have been trained through the Support to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth in the Sahel region project, the primary objective of which is to promote quality apprenticeship systems and youth employment.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - Clémentine, Yaya, Souleymane, and Aboni, are among 150 young apprentices who joined a one-year apprenticeship programme to learn two distinct but complementary trades. Indeed, the first profession concerns masonry techniques for construction, while the second focuses on electricity works in buildings. These promising trades on the Burkinabé labour market also have high job-growth potential.
Through this project, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) aims to remedy youth unemployment and skills mismatch, through concrete actions linked to the key elements of quality apprenticeship systems. Thus, the ILO seeks to improve and strengthen the national system, while collaborating with local partners, including the Youth Ministry, “Ministère de la Jeunesse et de la Promotion de l’Entrepreneuriat des Jeunes”.
The young apprentices benefited from the training, alternating between theoretical and practical courses. Theory was taught to them an average of 25 percent of the time in vocational training centres, while the remaining 75 percent was devoted to on-the-job training, with field-based learning activities. This type of training makes it possible to familiarize young apprentices with the real world of work and to develop the core technical skills necessary for the exercise of their profession.
“It was interesting to get rid of the theory and move on to practice", Yaya says.
The Association of Workers of the Building and Public Works (AO BTP), the Private Polytechnic School of Faso (E2PF) and the Vocational Training Centre of Ziniaré (CFPRZ), are the three centre that provided training to these young people from the municipality of Ouagadougou and its peripheral areas.
After one year, in September and October 2020, the training managers who welcomed the 150 young people, proceeded to the organization of graduation ceremonies under the leadership of the Youth Ministry. It was also the opportunity for the authorities to thank the ILO for launching the Support to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth in the Sahel region, and in particular, in Burkina Faso.
"I am proud of myself to have received the diploma and I am thankful for this training which allowed me to have the job that I have always dreamed of", Says Clémentine.
Thanks to their motivation and their desire to learn, the young people completed their training and received their diploma, despite more than a month's hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This experience allowed the young graduates to familiarize themselves with the real world of work and to acquire the skills currently needed by employers. As Yaya says, "It is just the beginning, the diploma is not the end, but thanks to this training we are on the way to building our future".