Across the African continent, professional qualification is perceived as a panacea for youth employment, particularly if the qualification is obtained in a technical secondary school or vocational training centre. However, there is a woefully inadequate number of technical schools and centres to absorb the youth population and the preference for school-based education does not adequately consider the pathways for young people leaving school before completing lower secondary school.
In Côte d’Ivoire, 13 percent of primary school age children (6-11 years) and 31 percent of lower secondary school age children (12-15 years) were out of school in 2024 according to UNESCO. Thus before reaching the age where they could choose a technical or vocational direction in their schooling (16-18 years), 48 percent were outside the school system. Other types of training are essential to these youth. For a long time, young people and their parents have opted for vocational training in apprenticeships under master craftspersons, not just in Côte d’Ivoire but across West Africa.
A new push to validate professional qualifications
With a view to professionalising skilled trades, the Ivorian government has taken inspiration from policies in countries such as Benin and Ghana to initiate a process to validate skills acquired from master craftspersons working in the informal economy. The scheme involves an end-of-training examination to assess apprentices who have completed at least three years of training. Upon passing the exam they will be awarded a Certificate of Professional Qualification (CQM), which according to the plan should open opportunities for employment in the formal economy.
The first CQM exams were held in several regions of the country in September 2025. The authors, who are one of three research teams in the ongoing research project “Pathways for Vocational Training and Informal Learning”, were authorised by the Directorate of Apprenticeship and Professional Integration (DAIP) to observe the exams. Observations were conducted in Soubré in south-western in the Nawa region.
The DAIP were clearly committed to organising a credible and rewarding certification process for craftspeople. Oral and practical assessments were issued nationally and distributed in sealed envelopes. Motivated and dedicated staff from national and regional offices of the Directorate of Technical Education, Vocational Training, and Learning and the Chamber of Skilled Trades were brought in to oversee the exams, and the examination centre was secured by the national security forces.
The significance of local master craftspersons in the certification process
In Soubré, 12 trades were covered by the 2025 CQM examination, and 58 candidates across all trades had registered. With no technical school or a centre to host the exams, the process relied on the goodwill of a number of master craftspersons to abandon their work for a day to let the exams be held in their workshop and to oversee the examination. While remuneration had been mentioned, it did not materialise before or during the exams.
The staff assigned to each site consisted of a site manager (the owner of the workshop), an administrator and a marker (both local master craftspersons and members of the jury). After each exam, the oral and practical marks were discussed, justified and validated by a deliberation jury chaired by the examination commissioner to ensure a fair examination process, and with a declared view to improving future CQM examinations. In Soubré, the first CQM examination was considered a success by all supervisors of the exam, including the observers, thanks to the commitment and discipline of all those involved, but above all to the leading master craftspersons.
Obstacles and eye-openers in Soubré
The budding certification of professional skills taught outside schools is supported by international actors, amongst others Caritas, GIZ and the World Bank through programmes to standardise non-formal vocational training and to bring out-of-school youth into vocational centres followed by a work placement. The obstacles observed during the CQM examinations in Soubré can offer recommendations for future interventions.
Strengthen assessment skills
Across several examination sites, observations revealed that the master craftspersons had not received sufficient training in how to administer and assess the CQM exams. While some had been involved in exam processes in NGO programmes, none of the exams were organised or marked in the same way. Ambiguous wording of questions rendered translation into local languages difficult and reduced the possibility of rephrasing questions in a manner that the candidate understood. Furthermore, the marking system was experienced as rigid and rudimentary, which meant the nuanced skills of candidates were not reflected and captured.
International actors managing short-term skills training programmes could support the evolving certification process by aligning their examinations to the format issued by the DAIP and by training their assessors thoroughly.
Ensure equality of opportunity and master craftspersons’ continued commitment
Communication before and during the CQM examination in Soubré caused confusion and additional work. Candidates were initially told not to bring tools, then, at a late stage, they were told the opposite. Not all candidates received this information which compromised the equality of exam conditions. One electrician almost failed the exam because he had to wait for others to finish their task before he could borrow their tools.
No member of the local examination organisation knew beforehand what equipment was required for the examination. As a result, the site managers were unable to furnish the examination sites with the appropriate equipment in advance. For car and motorcycle mechanics, for example, no vehicles had been prepared in terms of breakdowns for the exam subject, and carpenters did not have the relevant machines on-site. It was therefore necessary to create conditions on the spot to enable candidates to perform the required tasks.
International actors involved in skills training and work placements could acknowledge that making tools and equipment available is a huge commitment for master craftpersons. They could help finance the preparation of examination sites and ensure appropriate level of information.
Allow craftspersons to demonstrate their competencies
In several trades, the juries found the exercises too simple and were convinced that the candidates were capable of performing much more complex tasks. Within hairdressing for example, the candidates were given a task that they could complete within half the time allocated to the exam. In this case, there is a risk that the exams do not give the desired value to the craftspersons who have learned their skills for more than three years.
Some practical exam assignments revealed lack of specialised knowledge among the people who issued the practical exams. For example, some mechanics specialise in the repair and maintenance of heavy goods vehicles, while others specialise in personal vehicles. These two types of vehicles have different systems. Within mechanics, there are also other specialisations such as electronics, bodywork, automotive electricity, etc. However, the same subject was intended for all these categories of mechanics, thus allowing a minority to demonstrate their competencies and the rest to appear under-qualified.
International actors reinforce this underestimation of skills, by their support of short-cycle skills training in the belief that the participants can be integrated into the labour market. Some programmes offer centre-based professional training for three months combined with a work placement in a master craftsperson’s workshop during six to nine months. This is in sharp contrast to the five to seven years of training that most apprentices do to be deemed competent to be master craftspersons in the informal economy. In short, apprentices trained by master craftspersons usually have a much higher level of competencies than is reflected in the current CQM examinations and in centre-based interventions supported by international actors.
Conclusion
The common pathways for young people upon completing an apprenticeship is to establish their own workshop and gradually reproduce the non-formal vocational training of the next generation of craftspersons. An important question to consider for national and international actors concerns the outcome of the certification process: Does skills certification open other opportunities for apprentices? Does it change their potential to enter the job market after graduation?