Abstract:

Vocational education has been promoted as a means of socio-economic development in Morocco. It aims at improving the efficiency of acquired vocational skills by fostering links with labor market needs, assisting graduates seeking employment, particularly in the private sector, providing companies with qualified workers, guiding and directing a proportion of the student pool to vocational training and valorizing the skilled trades. In this respect, one of the key players is the Office for Vocational Training and Work Promotion (Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail). It is a government body that was created in 1974 to implement and promote government policies related to vocational education. It is responsible to oversee and supervise over half the students enrolled in 237 public training institutions offering 390 specializations. The Moroccan vocational training scheme consists of four levels of specialization and accounted for 258,000 students in 2007–2008 (Secrétariat d’État chargé de la formation professionnelle, Royaume du Maroc, 2007). Admission is based on success in entrance tests and/or in competitions. The first level is that of specialized technician and is open to secondary school graduates under 23. The second level, technician, is offered to students under 25 who completed 3rd year of secondary school but failed to obtain their diploma. The qualification level is open to students between 15 and 25, who completed between 9 and 11 years of formal schooling. Lastly, the specialization level is offered to students between 15 and 25 who completed elementary school. In general, the duration of training is two years for all levels. In 2007, the success rate was 83%, with 160,000 vocational training graduates. The quantitative objective of vocational education in Morocco has been met as the number of vocational-skilled graduates rose from 78,377 in 2003 to 130,000 in 2007 (Secréatariat d’État chargé de la formation professionnelle, 2007). However, the unemployment rate among graduates of vocational training spanned between 22 and 30% in 2008 compared to a 9.6% national average (Direction de la Statistique, 2008). Consequently, the vocational education qualitative objective of fostering links between the outputs trained through vocational training venues and the needs of the labor market has yet to be achieved. When confronting this issue, in addition to institution-based training, new business-based training modes have been adopted. Hence, vocational education in Morocco is currently offered to trainees by means of three main venues: skill-oriented training in form of school-based training, skill-based training through cooperative instruction and apprenticeship training. It should also be mentioned that sector training programs have been developed, particularly in tourism, textile and information technology as the latter were selected as economic niches. These new initiatives centre attention on skills acquisition through skill-based teaching approaches and consider the company as a privileged environment for the acquisition of workplace skills (Hassi, 2011).

Keywords:

Vocational training, performance indicators, Morocco.