Morocco’s education system is at a crossroads. Less than 15 percent of first grade students are expected to graduate from high school. Of those who do graduate, very few develop the right skills to succeed in the job market: four out of five unemployed people in Morocco are between the ages of 15 and 34. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) made a significant investment to address this problem and engaged Dalberg to guide its investment strategy and deployment.

OUR APPROACH

Our team first framed the problem as an education to employment challenge, recognizing that Morocco’s education system needs to prepare young people for success in the labor market. We then conducted a labor market analysis to identify Morocco’s growth sectors and the industries that were most likely to absorb young workers. Through rigorous desk and field research, we determined that hospitality, retail, construction, and manufacturing would be responsible for nearly 60% of the new jobs created in Morocco over the next five years. Finally, we identified private sector stakeholders and potential partners in these industries to assess their human capital challenges and determine how secondary and vocational education systems – and MCC’s investment – could more proactively address these challenges.

Based on our analyses, we made two recommendations: first, that the MCC create a fund for public-private partnerships that would support innovative job training solutions; and secondly, that investment be made in shared resource centers that focus on language and communication training to complement the existing secondary school curriculum with necessary soft skills development.

RESULTS

Dalberg worked with MCC to implement the fund by developing investment criteria, structuring the evaluation process, and identifying high-potential investments that have successfully strengthened the education to employment pathway.