Morocco Launch First University-Based Career Centres Aimed At Enhancing Employability Of Graduates

Morocco University-Based Career Centres

Morocco’s first university-based career centres have opened. Aimed at enhancing the employability of graduates and their transition to the workforce, the centres will provide orientation services to students and graduates, work readiness training, information on high growth sectors and exposure to employers, internships and other forms of workplace learning.

The two career centres located at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh and Abdelmalek Essaadi University in Tangier – were inaugurated on 27 May and 3 June respectively.

They will serve as a model for other public universities in Morocco to adopt or replicate. Development of a third career centre at University Hassan II Casablanca is under way.

The graduate unemployment problem

Nearly a quarter of university graduates in Morocco are registered as unemployed, according to a 2016 report from the government’s planning institution, the Haut-Commissariat au Plan.

Based on research and in-country interviews, a 2014 report entitled Youth Transition to the Labor Market in Morocco revealed structural reasons for the high rates of unemployed graduates.

The reasons are related to inefficiencies in the education system that have led to "overcrowding in public universities, low quality instruction in certain majors, and an excess of students getting training in majors that are not giving them the skills they need for full employment," said the report.

"These factors diminish returns to investment in higher education and distort student perceptions of future labour market returns."

Career centres

Developed under the four-year Career Center Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development or USAID in Morocco, in cooperation with the Moroccan ministry of higher education, the career centres are aimed at supporting universities to better respond to the needs of the labour market and to help alleviate graduate unemployment.

The initiative will embed work readiness programmes into the higher education system to prepare students for jobs after graduation, and build understanding of career preparation and planning among students, educators, government officials and the private sector.

It will also facilitate dialogue between industry and academia and help to forge links between the private sector and education institutions.

Designed for sustainability, career centre staff will include university employees, volunteers and students.

The centres will support students to enter the job market by providing an array of resources including information, preparatory classes, consulting, and intermediating between graduates and employers during internship programmes.

They will also engage with stakeholders in the public and private sectors, as well as university administrations and academics, to influence their perceptions of career development and employment.