USAID Morocco opened its first vocational training Career Center in Casablanca on December 27th, 2016. The center was inaugurated by the Ambassador of the United States in Morocco, Dwight L. Bush Sr and the Minister of National Education and Vocational Training, Rachid Benmokhtar Benabdellah, as well as the Director of the Office of Vocational Training and Employment Promotion (OFPPT), Larbi Bencheikh. In attendance were the heads of training departments, officials from the General Confederation of Moroccan Companies (CGEM) and representatives of the Casablanca - Settat region.

The new Career Center is located within the walls of the Specialized Institute for Applied Technology (ISTA) Hay Hassani I of OFPPT in Casablanca. The vocational training Career Center is the first-ever of its kind, following the successful launch, last spring, of the two first pilot Career Centers of higher education at Cadi Ayyad University of Marra-kech and at Abdelmalek Essadi University of Tangier.

After the inauguration ceremony, newly trained Career Center staff provided students, inside booths set up specifically for the occasion, with some of the services offered by the Career Center to familiarize them with this new concept in Morocco. Trainees were lining up throughout the day to benefit from services, including “Get to know yourself”, “Boost your resume”, “Introduce yourself in one minute” and “Get noticed online”. By the end of the day, more than 200 students benefited from these services.

A network of 20 Career Center Youth Ambassadors, acting as peer coaches promoting the Career Center with students, also provided support to the event and promoted career services to their fellow vocational students.

The event was covered by 12 national media outlets and 17 articles were published on several online Moroccan newspapers. The event was also broadcasted on three national TV channels.

USAID Career Center is a program designed with the Moroccan government to improve the employability of youth. The Career Centers are places of exchange between labor market actors – youth, businesses, training institutions, employment agencies, and associations – to guide young people in their transition from education to employment. The Career Center offers a range of services, including career orientation, work readiness workshops, soft skills trainings,  connection with the world of work, and even virtual services (www.careercenter.ma).

The program is planning to open three additional pilot centers in Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier to reinforce the employability of 100,000 young people by 2019.