In a global conversation about whether job-creating foreign aid should keep its longtime focus on employability in traditional sectors or move toward stimulating entrepreneurship, USAID Morocco is saying, “Why not both?”
A fifth of Moroccan youth are unemployed, and the way out may include a combination of new businesses and traditional careers. That’s the idea behind one of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s largest projects, the Career Center program, which establishes and supports replicable Moroccan university career centers to equip youth with soft skills and link them with private sector internships.
Moroccan employers have sent a clear signal to USAID about their interest in soft skills training for youth to address the fact that much of the country’s workforce doesn’t currently possess the communication and interpersonal know-how to thrive. Skills ranging from how to professionally prepare a resume to working as part of a team are sorely lacking, Nadia Amrani, USAID Morocco’s Career Center program manager told Devex.
About the author
Kelli Rogers@kellierin
Kelli Rogers has worked as an Associate Editor and Southeast Asia Correspondent for Devex, with a particular focus on gender. Prior to that, she reported on social and environmental issues from Nairobi, Kenya. Kelli holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, and has reported from more than 20 countries.
