Happy Youth Skills Day!
On this special day we celebrate the importance of equipping young people with the right skills to enter the labor market and create a brighter future for themselves.
The Ezdehar project in Algeria and Morocco provides a solution to a social emergency. In both countries, youth unemployment is predominant, and young women are particularly hard hit (45% of the unemployed). There is also a significant mismatch between the needs of employers and the skills of jobseekers.
Education for Employment (EFE) works with over 3,100 employers. They all recognise the difficulties in recruiting and the lack of digital, professional and emotional skills. Young people usually follow a very theoretical learning at school and are not prepared for the world of work. It is these cross-disciplinary skills that EFE wants to strenghten in the Ezdehar programme.
Developping skills to facilitate inclusion
Expectations in the professional world are changing, and if young people seize new opportunities, they need to learn the fundamentals of web research, calculation, writing and sometimes design. But technical skills are nothing without social emotional learning. They need to discover the implicit codes in the corporate world, such as how to express themselves, punctuality, respect for instructions and deadlines, note-taking, self-confidence and team spirit. With Education for employment, we create a bridge to the world of work by strengthening young people’s skills. But this bridge is fragile. We need to ensure that they stay in their jobs and adapt over time.
Learning takes place via online courses on a dedicated e-learning platform, as well as live training sessions where employability courses are tailored for the project’s beneficiaries.
The positive impact of the project
This multi-module learning program assists young people in Morocco and Algeria to develop 21st century skills. They learn conflict management, critical-thinking, self-management, responsible decision-making, interpersonal skills and mindfulness.
On the first year of this 3-years partnership, 230 young people in Morocco and Algeria already graduated. Here is a testimony from one of the graduands:
“Thanks to EFE, I participated in a soft skills training where we learned to be more self-confident, to visualize our dreams and then develop our skills to transform them into objectives. All that took place in a pleasant environment with good humor and kindness. To assist our progress day by day, the trainer knew his work well, was very competent, and knew how to put people at ease. I came away with a lot of knowledge regarding personal growth and fresh insights into enhancing my professional life. I want to express my gratitude to EFE and THF for providing young Algerians with the opportunity to develop their skills.”- BEDROUNI Bouchra, 25 years old, Delegate, Algeria.
This project is still on-going in both the above-mentioned countries. And youth continue to have a chance to rebuild and shape their future.