Coaching for employment and entrepreneurship - 
Job placement for disadvantaged youth

The project

The labour market situation in Morocco is characterised by a persistent downward trend in economic activity and employment rates, which nowadays lies below 48% for young people between the ages of 15 and 34 years old. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this development additionally.

Especially vulnerable young people and women are excluded from accessing the labour market. In the saturated salaried labour market, the only feasible alternative for youth is often an economic integration through self-employment and entrepreneurship.

Swisscontact recognises the opportunity for a high-quality, customised coaching approach that can maximise the benefits for the most vulnerable population groups and support them in their integration into the labour market. It therefore seeks to introduce the innovative and tested Coaching for Employment and Entrepreneurship (C4EE) methodology to local stakeholders who will provide the coaching to the target group.

The methodology, which has been jointly developed by Swisscontact and the University of Lucerne, is particularly suitable for developing the skills of marginalised people and for enhancing their access to the labour market because it intervenes at different levels of the labour insertion process. More specifically, it promotes life and soft skills, provides advice and guidance on labour market opportunities, facilitates access to supporting financial and technical services, and promotes cooperation between public and private sector actors in the field of employment.

Project Goals

In line with its facilitative approach, the project will promote capacity building of its local partners to increase the overall sustainability of the project achievements for the future. Creating ownership for the coaching cycle methodology is key to guarantee that local partners are both willing and able to carry on with the service after the project ends.

• Developing inclusive business models with system stakeholders.
  The project will select and map economic sub-sectors with the potential for self-employment of vulnerable populations in close collaboration with important stakeholders. The obtained data will be used to develop inclusive business models for the target group and will inform the orientation of the coaching cycle.
• Implementation of the coaching cycle methodology for self-employment. The project will adapt the methodology of the coaching cycle to the local context and anchor it in local partner institutions, where it will train coaches to carry out the coaching cycle.

Financing partners

This project is financed by Ursula Zindel-Hilti Foundation. It is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.