Congo programme aims to train one million young people
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Vox Congo
The Youth Employability Skills Development Programme is to enable one million Congolese young people to complete training in five years, with 700,000 to be certified. It also provides for 250,000 paths to self-employment, 100,000 salaried jobs and 25,000 small businesses, Minister Rodrigue Malanda Samba said.
The Youth Employability Skills Development Programme (PDCEJ) aims to enable one million Congolese young people to complete a qualifying training course within five years, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Qualifying Training Minister Rodrigue Malanda Samba announced on 30 October in Brazzaville. The programme must also certify 700,000 young people, support 250,000 people towards self-employment and place 100,000 young people in salaried jobs, according to the minister.
The PDCEJ also provides for the sustainable creation of 25,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperatives in Congo’s 15 departments. It is intended to link the identification of market needs, guidance, training, apprenticeships, certification, internships, intermediation, employment and entrepreneurship.
Rodrigue Malanda Samba justified the programme by the size of the youth population, with more than three-quarters of the population under 35, as well as high unemployment, the scale of informal employment and limited access to finance. The United Nations resident coordinator in Congo, Abdourahamane Diallo, said that training and the integration of young people into the workforce were linked to the new National Development Plan, the transformation of the economy and the strengthening of human capital.
