Project to rehabilitate the vocational training center for urban trades in Garoua

Youth unemployment in Garoua is a major problem, with an unemployment rate estimated at over 35% in Cameroon in 2020. Young people in Garoua face challenges such as a lack of professional experience, the poor quality of education, and increased competition for the available jobs. To address this problem, the Garoua City Council launched an initiative to create a vocational training center for urban trades such as metal and wood carpentry, plumbing, electricity and electronics, construction (BTP), and rapid training for office employees such as executive secretarial work, web development, and graphic design, in order to enable young people to develop practical skills, integrate into the labor market, and find jobs that are both sustainable and decent. The objectives of the training center are: - To train young people in urban trades to meet the needs of the labor market; - To develop entrepreneurship among young people to create jobs and stimulate the local economy; - To reduce unemployment by offering job opportunities to young graduates; However, the City Council severely lacks the resources to rehabilitate the said training center, particularly with regard to buildings, machines, furniture, and other equipment needed to provide suitable training for the young people of the city of Garoua. This explains why this training center is currently non-operational despite obtaining the vocational training accreditation issued by the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training. The failure to make this project operational as planned worsens the problems linked to youth unemployment in urban areas, which gives rise to many other forms of vice and excess observed among young people and in the city, such as the consumption of psychotropic substances, banditry, incivility, rural exodus, and even illegal migration.