The partnership between Italy and Senegal in vocational training, employment integration, and job creation continues to strengthen. In the presence of the Minister of Vocational and Technical Training, Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarre, the Minister of Labor and Employment, Abass Fall, and the Minister of Local Authorities, Moussa Bala Fofana, the Italian Ambassador to Dakar, Caterina Bertolini, and the AICS Dakar Director, Giovanni Grandi, attended the launch event of the first phase of professional integration under the “Project to Support the Professional Integration of Young People and Women (PAIJEF).”
This initial phase has facilitated the integration of 462 young graduates (57% women and seven individuals with disabilities) into 345 local businesses across all 14 regions of the country.
Since 2020, Italian Cooperation has supported professional integration policies in Senegal, initially through the PASPED project, funded by the EU and implemented by AICS in collaboration with CDP. This project placed 2,306 young men and women in 1,064 businesses between 2020 and 2022, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on these results, AICS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training, structured the PAIJEF project, scaling up PASPED’s best practices to a national level.
Over the years, Senegalese youth have demonstrated a strong willingness to enter the labor market, responding exceptionally well to the opportunities supported by AICS. Between 2020 and 2022, PASPED offered 2,100 internship positions lasting 9 to 12 months, for which 33,000 applications were received across six regions. Similarly, in this first phase of PAIJEF, approximately 8,000 applications were submitted across 14 regions for 462 internship positions lasting 10 months.
These figures highlight both the need for a structured industrialization process in Senegal and the urgent necessity, in the short term, to create a system of incentives and support for professional integration.
AICS will continue to support the Ministry of Vocational and Technical Training of the Republic of Senegal, aiming to integrate at least 10,000 young graduates and support at least 3,000 local businesses across the country’s 14 regions by 2026.