Interview with Hugues Ngouelondélé, Minister of Youth and Sports, of Civic Education, Skills Training and Employment since August 22, 2017. He was previously mayor of Brazzaville.
What are the main focuses of the Skills Development Project for Employability (PDCE)?
The PDCE is a government project implemented with technical and financial support from the World Bank. It should be noted that the project closed on June 30, 2023.
Its objective was to promote the acquisition and strengthening of employment and entrepreneurship skills for vulnerable young people living in urban areas, in order to enable them to enter the job market. It consisted of four main areas:
– The first concerns vocational training, professional integration, support for entrepreneurship and support for vulnerable young people with the condition of being aged 17 to 30 and having a level lower than or equal to the final year of high school without a Baccalaureate. The young people in this sub-component had been directed to public and private training centers. The theoretical and practical training at the center is supplemented by a three-month refresher course within a company or with a professional specialized in the training sector.
– Axis 2 targets vocational training for micro-entrepreneurs, provided they are aged 18 to 39 and have an AGR in the informal sector. Young people in this sub-component benefited from technical capacity building in their field of activity within companies or clusters and from training in business management.
– Axis 3 targets functional literacy and learning courses for young adolescents who are not in school or who have dropped out of school, with the condition of being aged 16 to 24, and having or not having a level lower than or equal to the 5th grade.
The young people in this sub-component benefited from apprenticeships with master craftsmen - workshops - or specialized professionals. Cross-disciplinary training on daily living skills (DLS) was also developed for the beneficiaries.
– Regarding axis 4, the Competitive Fund aimed to support and finance on a competitive basis the entrepreneurial initiatives presented by young people trained within the framework of the initial project.
At the end of the three training cohorts: 12,276 vulnerable young people benefited from the project's direct interventions – training and apprenticeships – including 6,153 women, or 48%.
One in four young Congolese graduates is unemployed. Isn't there a major career guidance problem?
Regarding youth employment in higher education, the results of the Congo 2022 Transition to Work Survey (ETVA) showed that approximately 1 in 4 young graduates are unemployed, and only 16% of higher education graduates have completed their transition. However, 48% have not started their transition, and 36% are in transition. In addition, 84% of young higher education graduates are in informal employment.
This is due to a number of factors, including: poor career guidance; the inadequacy of training programmes in relation to the needs of the productive sector; the absence of a labour market information system; the narrowness of the job offer; and weak partnerships between the education system in general and the productive sector.
What is the Mosala project?
The general objective of the "Mosala" project is to contribute to the adequacy of the training offer for young people with the skills needs of companies and to contribute to the implementation and management of active policies in favor of employment, particularly aimed at reducing inequalities between women and men in terms of professional integration.
In this respect, it sets two main specific objectives, namely:
– improve the availability, relevance and quality of public and private training provision in line with the prospects for integration of young people and, in particular, women into the labour market;
– support young people, and particularly women, through strengthened intermediation services to better inform them, guide them in their choice of training and support them in their professional integration process.
It also aims to strengthen the public employment service system and provide qualified personnel for key sectors of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2022-2026. The "Mosala" project will begin in the near future.
How do you plan to attract the talent pool represented by the European diaspora?
The upcoming opening in Paris of a guidance and information agency of the Congolese Employment Agency will enable the Congolese diaspora in Europe to learn about the employment opportunities offered by companies in the public and private sectors established in our country.
The main mission of the Congolese Employment Agency is to act as an intermediary between job providers and job seekers, and we hope that the opening of the Paris office will help create momentum towards a return.
Attracting talent from the Congolese diaspora will require a series of incentives, such as the possibility of home ownership. This possibility exists.
The Government of the Republic will examine all the needs expressed in this regard by the Congolese in the diaspora, within the framework of the discussions we will have with those concerned.