In partnership with the Bagassi Town Council and the NGO West Africa Governance & Economic Sustainability in Extractive Areas (WAGES), Roxgold Sanu refurbished and made operational the Bagassi Vocational Training Center. The center was built in 2010 by the Burkina Faso government with the aim of organizing vocational training for young people to reduce unemployment. However, due to a lack of financial and organizational resources, it never got off the ground.
The fundamental aim of the Bagassi Vocational Training Center is to considerably reduce school dropout and build professional capacities among young people in the area. Its operationalization has a number of positive outcomes:
• Getting young people into work: Census data shows that over 55% of the population in the area is under 20. Due to a lack of qualifications, the vast majority of these young people are involved in artisanal mining. Occupational training is therefore a way to give young people the chance to set up their own businesses while also creating jobs for others.
• Making available skills and tools useful for socio-economic development: The emergence of new fields of activity in rural areas requires the support of qualified professionals. This is the case for agricultural mechanization and solar electrification, which are experiencing great progresses but lack such support. The center is an opportunity for the rural population to benefit from the services of nearby workshops with trained or well-supervised staff.
• The creation of small and medium-sized local businesses, providing income and jobs: For certain small local services, the people of Bagassi often turn to people from other localities, such as Boromo, because they don’t exist locally. Yet these small services are important levers that can boost or support the socio-economic development of the locality.
• Making a reference training center available nearby: The Bagassi commune has no opportunities for young people to receive appropriate vocational training. Making the training center operational will give more young people the chance to be trained locally in a variety of topics.
• Reintegration of young artisanal miners and school dropouts: The availability of a center nearby will undoubtedly give some young people the chance to complete their schooling, which has been interrupted for a variety of reasons, including artisanal mining and unwanted pregnancies. Also, given the countless risks involved in artisanal mining (landslides, chronic illnesses, human deaths, etc.), raising awareness could encourage some young people to give up artisanal mining in favor of vocational training in entrepreneurial trades.
Through this work, Roxgold Sanu is contributing to the implementation of the National Development Plans, which aim to increase the proportion of technical and vocational training in the country. We recognize the importance of vocational training as a lever and driver of economic and social development. This is why we are committed to taking the lead in our area of operation, alongside other partners, including WAGES and the local council, to develop a skilled and competent workforce and to use it for the benefit of the communities – in short, to build the capacity of young girls and boys to benefit from the spin-offs of industrial mining.
In 2017, based on a study commissioned as part of the partnership with WAGES, it was recognized that the craft sector is a sector of opportunity for communities, particularly women and young people. This sector includes carpentry, welding, masonry, mechanics, electricity, catering, sewing and other activities. The emphasis has been placed on a relevant approach geared towards the labor market, based on the skills systems of Technical Education and Vocational Training. Short-term training courses have also been introduced, based on the skills-based approach and taking into account the gender approach.
Program Description
The training center in the Bagassi commune consists of two buildings housing classrooms, workshops and offices. The project is the result of a three-way partnership between Roxgold Sanu, WAGES and the Bagassi town council, with each party contributing its share. A partnership agreement was signed between the three parties, defining the roles of each party in achieving the project’s objectives. A manager and a consultant specializing in technical and vocational training were recruited and are responsible for developing curricula (short training modules), monitoring the implementation of training courses and setting up the local system for placing learners on internship. In order to support learners more effectively in their integration into the world of work, the center has formed partnerships with small businesses in Boromo, Houndé, Bobo-Dioulasso, Dédougou and Ouagadougou for professional development traineeship. Since self-employment is a key objective of the Bagassi training center, the distribution of installation kits to learners who have completed their training, and support in setting up a business are part of the training plan. Roxgold Sanu also provides financial support.
Since the program began, more than 200 young people and women have left the center with skills in:
- Agricultural mechanization
- Solar electrification
- Building electricity
- Vulcanization
- Sanitary plumbing
- Weaving
- Refrigeration and air conditioning
- Masonry
Challenges
While young people in general are confronted with a lack of employment, many income-generating opportunities remain unexploited due to the lack of qualifications among this considerable working population. Skills training is therefore a response to a dual challenge:
• Societal, on the one hand, by enabling a large number of young people to train in a trade, and thus promote their socio-professional integration and ensure their social fulfilment.
• Economical, by enabling the creation of small businesses, but also by offering local people the opportunity to find local skills to meet the needs of today and tomorrow, and thus improve their living and working conditions.
These two issues are among the goals pursued by Roxgold Sanu in its area of operation and justify the mine’s decision to take the lead in this project. The project to make the Bagassi vocational training center operational will have a definite scope and impact on the communities. It also remains original and sustainable in the sense that it brings together two partners while involving the beneficiary, the town council, which throughout the development of the project remains the entity in charge of management and the search for new partners.
Outlook
The Bagassi vocational training center is the fruit of a successful partnership between a public body, a local authority and an NGO, for the well-being of the local population. In the short to medium term, Roxgold Sanu and its partners will work to:
- Strengthen the center’s organizational and technical (pedagogical) capacity with more teaching aids and materials, capacity building for teaching and supervisory staff.
- Involve the local technical services.
- Create links or twinning arrangements with other vocational training institutions.
- Implement a strategy for gradually making the center self-sufficient, while involving all the resource people in the locality.
- Make the center a reference in the Boucle du Mouhoun region.
- Undertake a study on the socio-economic impact of the training center to serve as a compass for future interventions.