Morocco helping women's employment prospects with and professional training centres

13/10/2006

Morocco is opening more women's centres and professional training centres to help women learn to read, complete their formal education and access training for a variety of careers.

By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia – 13/10/06

[File] Women of all ages benefit from activities at the women’s centres

Morocco is opening more than 286 women's centres and 124 professional training centres to encourage women to be more independent and creative.

The main benefit is for girls who have not received or have been unable to complete their formal education to receive training to obtain proper academic qualifications. At least 141,702 women have already benefited form such permanent programmes. Extended activities at existing centres have helped 321,602 women.

More than 26,000 women a year benefit from professional induction courses in women’s centres. Literacy courses are taken by 11,000 women, 4,000 of whom live in rural areas. Around 8,000 benefit from professional training in special centres.

The geographically-dispersed centres provide quality training to meet young women’s aspirations for areas such as information technology-based management, needlecraft, household management, traditional and modern embroidery, hairdressing and beauty treatment, and fashion.

Through the establishments, the Department for Youth is also able to monitor, support and evaluate 158 educational co-operatives and training services providing for around 4,000 women, as well as promoting micro-projects which benefit thousands of women, especially in rural areas.

Jamal Shimi, head of the women's affairs division at the youth department, says that the women's centres allow her department to contribute to the promotion, active participation and integration of Moroccan women and girls into society through literacy courses and regularly-organised awareness-raising campaigns.

He says that the first women's centres were opened in the 1950s, with the intention of raising awareness, combating illiteracy and delivering Islamic and national education programmes.

Nursery school classes were opened soon after in the 1960s to care for children accompanying their mothers. This infrastructure has seen changes in style and number over the years, though the number of day nurseries is still low compared with demand, particularly in rural areas.

A number of associations are working within women's centres to further raise awareness and literacy among women. They also provide support for schooling, careers guidance, re-integration of disadvantaged women, information technology and artistic and cultural activities.

Abdelkader El Abed, president of the Tamsna association, says that the heads of these centres are proving to be very co-operative: "We're always ready to undertake joint action with them so that women can have the same chances as men," he said.