Interview Didier Acouetey « What makes the interest of training is interaction « .

President of the human resources firm AfricSearch and a keen observer of the evolution of the African job markets, Didier Acouetey analyzes in this interview the transformations taking place in the sector on the continent. In particular those linked to digitalization. 

The pandemic has reminded us, if it were necessary, of the urgency of creating new jobs in Africa. However, in this area, the observation is clear: the current training offer on the continent is often inadequate… 

You are right.  Everyone agrees today that youth is the segment of the population that should focus all public efforts in terms of skills and employability. Unfortunately, the programs that are put in place are not achieving their objectives. The first problem is that education systems are difficult to reform. You can build all the universities you want, but if you don’t review the curricula and the education systems in depth, you won’t solve the problem. From this point of view, if we look at the number of students who enter universities – and higher education in general – every year, no amount of investment will be able to meet the demand. 

« The idea is to bring young people up to speed on fundamental skills: how to analyze, write, make proposals… »

Nevertheless, there are a number of private initiatives, including one in Côte d’Ivoire that will be launched soon and where we are partners. In concrete terms, young people will be taken care of for six months in an employability program. When students leave school, they have no skills and don’t know how to do much. So the idea is to take these young people and reformat them to bring them up to speed on fundamental skills: knowing how to analyze, write, make proposals… The second axis of this initiative is to give these young people more operational skills, which they don’t always have because they haven’t learned them and haven’t been in the workplace. The third and final point emphasized in this program is execution, the ability to keep a roadmap. In the end, if young job candidates do not meet these three prerequisites, they will not be able to adapt to the needs of the market. 

How can the private sector be more closely involved in this process?

The private sector is essential. In the program I mentioned, it is companies that will host these young people. But not all private sector actors have the means to play this role. There is a cycle of learning in the company with a mentor, so that the company trains these young people in an optimal way. On this precise point, the State could encourage companies to play this training role by helping them financially, through the apprenticeship tax for example. 

« If we are talking about a public/private approach, the State must support this type of training in companies. 

In reality, however, one wonders if these funds are used wisely. If they were used intelligently, they would finance these apprenticeship programs in companies, with the State taking charge of the mentor, for example, so that the company would have an interest and the young person would make himself useful to the company. In practice, it is a real follow-up and it is a real struggle to find the time necessary for this type of coaching, as managers are often very busy… If we are talking about a public/private approach, the State must support this type of training in companies. 

What about the rise of online training? Is it a real alternative? 

We can no longer afford to ignore the digitalization of training. As adults, we learn every day. Sometimes through seminars, but every day, we learn with these new digital tools. What is valid for adults is even more so for young people and this hybrid education system (face-to-face and digital) will become more and more the norm. 

« What makes a training interesting is the interaction »

It is nevertheless good to remember that what makes the interest of a training is the interaction. It is in the exchanges with others that we reinforce our skills. In fact, when we say online training, we are not only talking about educational programs through which you learn by yourself. Digitalization is an imperative, but it must be built in a pragmatic way. For example, I’ve seen online training on mechanical or auditing work designed so that the learner understands, integrates and moves on to execution, through slides and visuals. So we need real online teaching, not just online content or a teacher delivering a theoretical course online. More broadly, digitization should be complemented by periodic interaction and be done in conditions where the learner can benefit from it. 

On the other hand, we also have to look at the costs. I’ve seen training programs in the airline industry that were exorbitantly expensive! With a logic of volume and economy of scale, we could however reduce these costs. As for the private sector, it will invest in this e-learning sector if it sees a source of profit. All mechanisms must be put in place to encourage the private sector to develop these modules.