Improving qualifications for the human resources required for Madagascar’s development

Vocational training is a core economic and social challenge for the country’s development. While strong economic growth increases the number of young people on the labor market, the training sector is finding it difficult to adapt to the employment situation. The building and public works sector in Madagascar is a structural activity which supports all the country’s major investment programs (roads and transport, agriculture-livestock raising, industrial buildings and housing, mining, energy). Existing public and private basic and continuous training systems leading to a qualification and diploma in the building and public works sector concern some 6,000 people a year, but do not always match business needs.

The public authorities and professional organizations in the sector aim to address these difficulties by working together in order to launch a modernization of training systems in the industry.

The project aims to develop systems, capacities and resources in training activities for the building and public works sector under a public-private partnership with professional organizations in the sector and economic operators. The project consequently aims to:

• Establish a joint governance; Improve the governance of training institutions;
• Upgrade the facilities of training centers; Update curriculum content;
• Retrain trainers and train new trainers;
• Strengthen professional organizations in the building and public works sector to enable them to take part in vocational training management.

This project, which started in 2011, has already achieved a number of results, including:

• 4 technical secondary schools and colleges in the building and public works sector have been refurbished and equipped;
• 3 higher education institutions offer high-quality training and upgraded research laboratories (basic training);
• Building companies have access to short-term innovative training to build their employees’ capacities (continuous training);
• The curricula for technical and vocational training in the building sector have been revised in partnership with the private sector;
• 200 trainers have been trained or retrained in new sector activities;
• A building sector observatory has been set up and professional organizations in the building sector have been strengthened in four regions.