Morocco Explores New Avenues to Help Unemployed Youth
18 June 2012
Read by 1596 persons
Morocco and its international partners are considering new strategies to boost youth employment.
The issue has become a top priority in the kingdom, after unemployed youth put pressure on the government by organizing protests and meetings and seeking support from the National Consultative Council for Human Rights.
With nearly 250,000 young people entering the job market each year, youth unemployment is a major concern for all stakeholders in Morocco, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Abdelkader Amara.
The goal is to train qualified human resources to meet the demand for 360,000 jobs in the sector by 2020, he specified.
Possible solutions have come from a wide range of sources, he explained. The government plans to launch a training program in the retail sector, which employs nearly 1.4 million people and represents the fourth largest contribution to GDP.
The National Rally of Independents (RNI) has proposed a law to create incentives for a "self-employment system" known as "Bidaya" (Start), which provides for simplification of administrative, tax and social measures.
People with business projects should be helped by making the requirements for starting a project less expensive, explained the president of the RNI Salaheddine Mezouar.
The idea of this opposition party is to allow people to start their business via the internet without initial capital and at a flat tax rate of three percent, he explained. This measure would apply to commercial companies with a turnover of less than one million dirhams and service companies with less than 500,000 dirhams, he specified.
These companies should be helped to win public contracts, and all expenses should be 100 percent deductible to encourage them to become independent and allow anyone to create their own business, he specified.
"We must value failures as in the Anglo-Saxon entrepreneurial culture," concluded Mezouar.
The World Bank is also interested in youth employment in Morocco.
In its May 14 report entitled "Promoting Opportunities and Youth Participation in Morocco," it explains that based on a 2011 survey of 2,883 young people living in cities, nearly thirty percent of Moroccan young people aged 15 to 29 are unemployed.
According to this report, it is time to engage in dialogue with employers to ensure that young people are able to develop their potential to the fullest. The World Bank supports cooperation between the government and young people to find appropriate solutions, and recommends that young people be included in decision-making processes.
According to this survey, the Moroccan education system is a two-tiered system: the private school that trains elites in French, and the public school that teaches mainly in Arabic. While the job market requires mastery of the French language, graduates of the public system are excluded.
For Gloria La Cava, analyst at the World Bank, these recommendations should be implemented through comprehensive programs involving both the public and private sectors and civil society organizations.
She also emphasizes that policies should be adopted to help young people find jobs by improving training, offering real job opportunities, and combating informal work.
An opinion shared by sociologist Samira Kassimi. This is what the government is currently striving to do, she explains.
However, she adds that the road will be long and full of pitfalls, because young graduates, especially those who have been unemployed for years, do not want to follow other qualifying training courses in order to integrate into the job market.
Sham Ali.
Magharebia.com
Published June 17, 2012.
Posted online June 18, 2012.
The issue has become a top priority in the kingdom, after unemployed youth put pressure on the government by organizing protests and meetings and seeking support from the National Consultative Council for Human Rights.
With nearly 250,000 young people entering the job market each year, youth unemployment is a major concern for all stakeholders in Morocco, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Abdelkader Amara.
The goal is to train qualified human resources to meet the demand for 360,000 jobs in the sector by 2020, he specified.
Possible solutions have come from a wide range of sources, he explained. The government plans to launch a training program in the retail sector, which employs nearly 1.4 million people and represents the fourth largest contribution to GDP.
The National Rally of Independents (RNI) has proposed a law to create incentives for a "self-employment system" known as "Bidaya" (Start), which provides for simplification of administrative, tax and social measures.
People with business projects should be helped by making the requirements for starting a project less expensive, explained the president of the RNI Salaheddine Mezouar.
The idea of this opposition party is to allow people to start their business via the internet without initial capital and at a flat tax rate of three percent, he explained. This measure would apply to commercial companies with a turnover of less than one million dirhams and service companies with less than 500,000 dirhams, he specified.
These companies should be helped to win public contracts, and all expenses should be 100 percent deductible to encourage them to become independent and allow anyone to create their own business, he specified.
"We must value failures as in the Anglo-Saxon entrepreneurial culture," concluded Mezouar.
The World Bank is also interested in youth employment in Morocco.
In its May 14 report entitled "Promoting Opportunities and Youth Participation in Morocco," it explains that based on a 2011 survey of 2,883 young people living in cities, nearly thirty percent of Moroccan young people aged 15 to 29 are unemployed.
According to this report, it is time to engage in dialogue with employers to ensure that young people are able to develop their potential to the fullest. The World Bank supports cooperation between the government and young people to find appropriate solutions, and recommends that young people be included in decision-making processes.
According to this survey, the Moroccan education system is a two-tiered system: the private school that trains elites in French, and the public school that teaches mainly in Arabic. While the job market requires mastery of the French language, graduates of the public system are excluded.
For Gloria La Cava, analyst at the World Bank, these recommendations should be implemented through comprehensive programs involving both the public and private sectors and civil society organizations.
She also emphasizes that policies should be adopted to help young people find jobs by improving training, offering real job opportunities, and combating informal work.
An opinion shared by sociologist Samira Kassimi. This is what the government is currently striving to do, she explains.
However, she adds that the road will be long and full of pitfalls, because young graduates, especially those who have been unemployed for years, do not want to follow other qualifying training courses in order to integrate into the job market.
Sham Ali.
Magharebia.com
Published June 17, 2012.
Posted online June 18, 2012.
