Today, May 26, 2023, the Essor Association held a signing ceremony for a service contract between the social enterprise Job Booster Chad and the Essor Association as part of the "Jeunesse vers l'Emploi Durable" project. The ceremony took place in the presence of the Essor Association Country Representative and the manager of the Job Booster Chad social enterprise.
Presentation of the service
Chad's population is estimated at over 16 million, made up mainly of young people (over 68% under the age of 25), who account for the majority of the total population. According to projections by the same source, Chad will have a population of 22.2 million (2030) and 36.8 million (2050), with a natural growth rate of 3.1% per year, one of the highest in the world. Chad's youth, who make up the majority of the population, face a number of challenges, not least that of socio-professional integration, caused by the relatively high unemployment rate among this segment of the population.
According to the report of the Fourth Survey on Household Living Conditions and Poverty in Chad (ECOSIT4), the overall unemployment rate in the extended ILO sense is 18.4%. Women and young people aged 15-24 are the most affected by unemployment, with rates of 26.8% and 30.3% respectively, highlighting the precarious situation of these two segments of the population.
Unemployment data reveal significant disparities according to area of residence and level of education. Data taken on spatial scales show that cities in general, and N'Djamena in particular, have the highest unemployment rates. This can be explained by the high concentration of economic activity in cities, and in N'Djamena in particular, which attracts young people, especially from rural areas. Furthermore, data classified by type and level of qualification reveal that unemployment mainly affects young people with secondary and higher education and training (70%).
There are at least two plausible explanations for the high unemployment rate among this group of graduates. Firstly, students do not choose their careers according to labor market opportunities, resulting in a mismatch between training and labor market requirements. Secondly, young people, and in particular secondary school graduates, have a relatively low level of qualification, which limits their employability and makes them less competitive in an already saturated and highly competitive labor market.
With the aim of contributing to effective, integrated solutions to the above challenges faced by young first-time jobseekers in Chad, the ESSOR Association has enlisted the services of the social enterprise Job Booster Chad to support and accompany 150 jobseekers, at least 40% of whom are women, to benefit from a paid internship and post-internship coaching, with the aim of achieving an insertion rate of at least 50%, 1 year after the start of their internship.
The vision of the ESSOR Association, through the "Youth towards sustainable employment" project, is to strengthen the training and professional integration sector in the service of young graduates and non-graduates exposed to the above-mentioned conditions of vulnerability, and in which Chadian youth aspire to an honorable exit. One of the objectives of this project is to enable vulnerable young people without diplomas and young graduates to play an active role in their own future, through training and integration into economic life, in particular through entrepreneurship. To achieve this objective, the Job Booster Chad social enterprise will be responsible for supporting 150 young people in their professional integration over a 3-year period, through paid internships.
Job Booster Chad Entreprise's mission is market-driven and can be summed up in four steps:
- Identify internship opportunities in private companies, including SMEs; national and international organizations, etc., for the professional integration of young people.
- Recruitment and support of young first-time jobseekers potentially meeting previously identified needs, and support through training modules to develop their employability.
- Placement of young first-time jobseekers in identified companies and organizations.
- Post-internship follow-up of young people placed to ensure that they contribute to the productivity of the organization in which they are placed, and also with the aim of achieving an insertion rate of at least 50%, one year after the start of the internship.
The success of this mission largely depends on the involvement and absorption capacity of young jobseekers by employing companies and organizations. This is why Job Booster Chad Entreprise is calling on companies, including SMEs and national and international organizations, wishing to recruit talent to help improve their productivity, to express their needs in terms of trainee profiles to be taken into account in the recruitment and training of young people.
