(Adnkronos) – Envoy to Senegal Caterina Bertolini and Italy’s development agency AICS’s Dakar director Giovanni Grandi were among officials who attended the launch of a project that aims to integrate at least 10,000 young graduates and support at least 3,000 local businesses across the country by 2026, AICS stated on Friday.
Senegal’s vocational and technical training minister Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarre, labor and employment minister Abass Fall, and the local authorities minister Moussa Bala Fofana also attended the project’s launch.
A total 462 young graduates (57% women and seven individuals with disabilities) have already been integrated into 345 local businesses in the first phase of the ‘The Project to Support the Professional Integration of Young People and Women (PAIJEF) – across Senegal’s 14 regions, the AICs statement said.
PAIJEF scales up to national level a previous project implemented in partnership with Senegal’s government (PASPED) which placed 2,306 young men and women in 1,064 businesses between 2020 and 2022, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senegalese youth have demonstrated a strong willingness to enter the labour market, responding exceptionally well to the opportunities supported by AICS, according to the statement.
Funded by the European Union and carried out by AICS, PASPED between 2020-2022 offered 2,100 internship positions lasting 9 to 12 months, for which 33,000 applications were received across six regions.
Similarly, in the first phase of PAIJEF, approximately 8,000 applications were submitted across 14 regions for 462 internship positions lasting 10 months, said the statement.
“These figures highlight both the need for a structured industrialisation process in Senegal and the urgent necessity, in the short term, to create a system of incentives and support for professional integration,” the statement said.
AICS will continue to support Senegal’s vocational and technical training ministry, the statement concluded.
