Hiring qualified human resources is quite the big challenge considering the undergoing changes happening in the job market. It is mostly due to the fact that the type of qualifications individuals have is not up to standard with the qualifications that the businesses need. This significant unbalance has always been an obstacle when hiring young people in Africa whose unemployment rate is on the rise. It, actually,has been in the center of all discussions this last few years,for example in Sub Saharan Africa, more than 50% of the population is unemployed.
Decision makers are very much aware of the issue and are therefore focused on promoting public policies that would help matching the specified training with the specified need of the entreprise. The goal is to know about the different existing jobs and skills the businesses are looking for on the continent, and plan training. The trainings would give answers to those questions: what career, what expertise, what skills to craft in supporting and sponsoring the development of businesses in strategic sectors.
The need to promote vocational education…
Several experts agree on the fact that it is important to focus more on vocational education than general education, in order to have trainings that match the needs of the job world in Africa. This suggestion is relevant because it helped countries like China to find their way through. Indeed in the third forum “investing in Africa”, the Chinese shared their experiences on training-employment in Africa.
Suchao Maz, VP of a chinese teaching company commented that education was a priority in his country because young people needed to have degrees and skills in order to properly integrate the job market. “We started promoting vocational training in the 90’s and thanks to that students’ skills and confidence rose up to 15%. the Government has increased funding in vocational training by providing funds specifically dedicated to that sector”, he added.
Africa ought to look at the chinese model as it already showed positive results. It was with this in mind that the Senegalese government decided to create ISEP which is a higher education institute for vocational training, in an effort to promote fitting training-employment in the country.