Program Description

Current Situation

Morocco’s ability to generate a capable workforce will be key to its global economic competitiveness. However, the country is faced with a large population of uneducated, unemployed, and underemployed youth. Illiteracy is high, 43% overall and close to 80% for rural women. This is due to inadequate access to quality and relevant education, which lays the foundation for all future learning of a nation’s workforce.

Morocco is committed to improving its basic education system and increasing the capacity of its schools to deliver quality education for all. Moreover, the government is striving to establish a system that efficiently balances skill supply and demand, is sustainable, and meets the short- and long-term economic needs of the country. USAID’s programs focus on basic education (through grade 9 and literacy), entry-level vocational training, and life-skills training for the workplace that we call “job preparedness training.”

 Program Focus

• Strengthening the Government of Morocco’s education reform efforts to reduce drop-out rates through the improvement of the quality and relevance of lower secondary and upper primary education.
• Helping to combat illiteracy through a new training program for rural women in local languages, drawing content from the Family Code as a bridge to the regular, national 300-hour classical Arabic program.
• Supporting the government in closing the gap between supply and demand for entry level skills training in agriculture, and ICT (including job-preparedness.)

 Successes

• Started a literacy “bridge” program using Moroccan Arabic and Amazigh (Berber) and subject matter from the Family Code to introduce adult learners to written Arabic. This program eased their transition, reduced drop-out rates, and equipped women to better understand their rights as citizens.
• Helped local NGOs create a network of dormitories for girls. These allow rural girls to continue their education and complete middle school in supervised away-from-home lodging while creating an attitude change in rural parents to see the value of schooling their daughters.
• These local NGOs have built their capacity to find partners, raise funds, and manage their resources. Many have become financially independent and continue their own programs.
• Half of the students graduating from vocational training institutions and high schools participating in Cisco Certified Network Associate training have found jobs in the ICT sector within six months after graduation.
• USAID helped the Ministry of National Education to carry out its first National Education Account audits, providing critical information to the strategic planning and policy dialogue for education.
• Private sector agricultural experts have enriched the curriculum of the agricultural training institutes with hands-on, tailor-made courses for students.