Silatech, in tie-up with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Education for Employment Maroc (EFE-Maroc), has helped employ more than 1,900 youths in Morocco in the past 12 months.

 

EFE-Maroc celebrated this achievement at the 1st anniversary ceremony held recently in Casablanca. The ceremony was attended by the project’s partners including Dell, Accenture, the National Agency for the promotion of Employment and Competencies (ANAPEC) and representatives from the Ministry of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment and Skills.

 

The “A Chance to Reset: Reskilling, Empowerment towards Sustainable Employment to Thrive” project which was launched last year in September aims to combat the high rates of youth unemployment and underemployment that Morocco faces within its youth demography, especially post the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

High-demand jobs

As a result, the four-year project is targeting to place more than 8,000 young people into high demand jobs through several initiatives, including the facilitation of training focused on the labour market, job matching, the organization of virtual and face-to-face job fairs and entrepreneurial accompaniment.

 

Silatech CEO Hassan Ali Al-Mulla, said: "The pandemic had a heavy impact on employment around the world with youth the most impacted, but it has also accelerated the pace of change for programmes like “A Chance to RESET” to emerge. Silatech, an international, socio-economic development, non-profit organisation, believes that strong partnerships and responsive solutions are the ultimate way to combat the growing global crises of high youth unemployment, today we celebrate the employment of more than 1,900 young men and woman, however the plan has always been to expand and I’m confident we will gather again in 3 years to celebrate more than 8,000 employed graduates." 

 

James Carty, Deputy Director for Middle East and East Asia, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “The success of the ‘A Chance to Reset’ programme confirms that investing in young people remains a crucial and fruitful endeavour. While increasing the quantity of available jobs is important; proper guidance, counselling, and the enhancement of the quality and diversity of job offerings have an equally large impact on the successful development of sustainable livelihoods. We remain confident listening to the voices of young people and including them in the development of policies supporting their employment will help drive better solutions in the future.”

 

Increasing the pace

"Our goal today is to maintain, and even increase, this pace over the next few years, which is achievable thanks to the solid and dynamic ecosystem that we have been able to create with our institutional partners, our employer partners, the universities, and the various actors in civil society," said Amine Berrada Sounni, Chairman of EFE-Maroc.

 

In the first year, the project saw the organisation of several activities with high added value, such as the organisation of a virtual recruitment fair and open days in several cities of the country, which made it possible to create a space for exchange and initiate meetings between candidates and potential recruiters in order to strengthen the employability of young people. EFE-Morocco has also inaugurated Hiring Kiosks in Casablanca which are added to those already installed in Kenitra and Rabat to connect more young people to the new job opportunities that surround them.-- TradeArabia News Service