The technical assistance project aimed to support ASCAD’s development based on three areas:
• Deployment of two new civic service centres for development action (SCAD) in Mamou and Kankan with an infrastructure component
• Consolidation of the recruitment, training and integration division with an engineering component for training, pathways and certification for a target public in vulnerable situations
• Consolidation of governance and its development strategy with a component to support the scaling-up and capacity building.
As part of this project, Expertise France provided ASCAD with a number of experts with specific knowledge to support its regionalisation strategy (deployment of two new centres in Mamou and Kankan) and develop a more effective training engineering and pedagogy. The assistance provided took into account environmental and gender issues to ensure they are fully integrated in ASCAD's development strategy.
This project was implemented in a context of strong population growth in Guinea which poses a challenge for the socioeconomic integration of young people. In recent years, the World Bank has estimated that over 80% of young Guineans were unemployed in Guinea. This high unemployment rate is due to several difficulties experienced by the country, especially:
• A great disparity in access to education for the Guinean population
• An insufficient and inappropriate vocational training provision.
The Civic Service Agency for Development Action (ASCAD) is a Guinean public vocational integration agency set up in 2012. Originally based on the French adapted military service, the Guinean civic service has now reached maturity through a unique organisation and functioning tailored to Guinea’s specific development issues and means, which are very similar to other African States.
This civil-military public administrative institution under presidential supervision offers young people the opportunity of carrying out civic service and receiving support on various aspects: accommodation, civic education, vocational training, integration, assistance for entrepreneurship.
The agency’s objectives are to promote civic education for young people, offer them a professional qualification and facilitate their socioeconomic integration.
Through its model, ASCAD manages to:
• Give a meaning to and appetite for work
• Address the lack of education among a large proportion of young people through the acquisition of basic skills and soft skills
• Promote professionalisation for local employability, in particular by seizing the opportunities of employment areas
• Develop entrepreneurial capacities to promote the creation of new employment areas.
SCAD is an effective system.
ASCAD currently has three SCAD centres in Conakry, Kindia and Kankan. Over 2,400 young people (39% women) have been trained since the system was set up and the centres have a youth employment rate of 85%.
