Triangular Cooperation in Vocational Training among Morocco, Republic of Korea and Four African Countries

Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tunisia are Southern countries equipped with a relatively basic infrastructure and industrial environments. They all have great national needs for strengthening the capacities of technical manpower in the automotive field, due to the industry’s expected growth in the future. For example, in 2017, Côte d’Ivoire showed a high growth rate in its automotive market, with a 7 percent growth in new car sales. Its government has declared the advent of automobile assembly lines as a national project, which reveals great significant demands for building capacities of its technical manpower in the particular field. 

This triangular cooperation project builds on the success of a previous project of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the ‘Project for the establishment of the Institut de Formation aux Métiers de l’Industrie Automobile de Casablanca [Advanced Automobile Training Institute in Casablanca] (IFMIAC)’, implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training of Morocco. Since the foundation of IFMIAC in 2013, the institute has continued to show outstanding results, which has led to the establishment of this triangular project to respond to the great demand by other African countries to use IFMIAC as a benchmark. This triangular cooperation project targets youth from recipient countries to receive quality vocational training in the automotive industry (Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.4) and consequently produce quality manpower in the automotive industry of the recipient countries to help their industries and economy grow (Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.2). 

The project comprises multi-year training, and is executed through triangular cooperation among the Republic of Korea, Morocco and four Africa countries (Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Tunisia). The project primarily aims to train government officials and technical instructors of the four recipient countries to help them establish action plans to develop vocational training in their automotive industry. The project includes two types of training courses. The first type aims to build the capacity of Moroccan officials and managers of IFMIAC to enable them to train the second type of training courses. The second type aims to reinforce the capacities of decision-makers and technical instructors from the four African countries.  

From the planning phase, this project is designed by applying the ‘Analysis-based Course Development (ABCD) methodology, which was developed by the Korean training agency, Korea Tech, in order to provide the exact type of training courses that best suits the demands of the recipient countries. The ABCD methodology deduces demand prior to designing the project based on policy analysis (i.e. analysing the recipient country’s national growth strategy, strategies by area, systems and policies), situation analysis (i.e. analysing interior and exterior environments surrounding relevant areas) and field analysis (i.e. analysing current status and demands in relevant fields). It selects lecture topics, subjects and training targets, and designs courses that suit the topics and targets based on the findings.  

Through this triangular cooperation initiative, in 2018, ten Moroccan IFMIAC officials were trained (ROK invitational course) and in 2019, 12 officials and policymakers from the four African countries were trained (Morocco invitational programme). In 2020, KOICA plans to carry out the remaining courses (the 3rd and 4th) via an online format taking into consideration the COVID-19 pandemic; 21 Moroccan IFMIAC officials will be trained in the 3rd course, but the number of trainees for the 4th course has not yet been decided.  The levels of academic achievement and satisfaction of the trainees were very high; for the 2018–2019 training courses, survey results by participants showed a satisfaction rate of 90 out of 100, on average). Since this project is still in progress, and an evaluation has not yet been conducted, it is difficult to assess its actual impact at the current stage. However, as an immediate deliverable of the executed training courses, the trainees from Morocco and the four countries have concluded developing action plans and analyses in their respective countries. In order to encourage the subsequent implementation of these action plans in partner countries, KOICA will conduct a follow-up survey and monitor the status of implementation of these action plans until the end of the project year. KOICA will also conduct follow-up assessments with the Moroccan counterpart upon completion. 

Through this project, opportunities among the participating countries have been enhanced to engage in self-motivated cooperation. As a result of this training, Morocco’s IFMIAC and Senegal’s Institut Supérieur d’Enseignement Professionnel [Higher Institute of Vocational Education] (ISEP), established through KOICA’s aid, signed a partnership agreement to promote training exchange activities to strengthen the capabilities of instructors, thus ensuring the sustainability of the project. 

Since the foundation of IFMIAC, the Moroccan Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training expressed its willingness to continuously promote this triangular cooperation initiative, especially with French-speaking African countries. Through this project, KOICA intends to significantly contribute to improving Morocco’s ability to serve as a leading nation in triangular cooperation, with its own perspective. Moreover, in order to continuously support Morocco’s capacity in triangular cooperation for vocational training, KOICA plans to carry out the follow-up project, ‘The Technical Enhancement Training Hub Center for Moroccan TVET Trainers Project’ (2020–2024) (US$6 million). This new project enables technical and vocational education and training (TVET) instructors and faculty to learn new technologies such as information and communications technology (ICT) and reinforce their practical capabilities. The triangular cooperation project will continue to be pursued at this training hub centre in order to cultivate the abilities and skills of the TVET trainers in neighbouring countries.