AJA-Mali: Education for Employment
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RE-INVENTING EDUCATION AT AJA
An innovative approach to vocational training is helping youth build essential job skills.
AJA set out to revolutionize the tradition of apprenticeships in Malian society. An apprenticeship can help trainees build skills, but frequently leaves young people without the means to go out on their own. They can conclude a relationship with a master without ever learning how to read, write, or manage a business. "Most of them end up unemployed," AJA's director Souleymane Sarr said.
On the other hand, formal education can leave graduates with a strong theoretical background, but none of the practical skills training or street savvy needed to operate a business in the informal sector of Mali's economy.
To fill these gaps, Sarr and a small staff at AJA developed innovative vocational training programs for unemployed youth, many of them school drop-outs from very poor families struggling to make a living on the streets. In 1996, AJA got a grant from Oxfam America and recruited a mix of 50 people. The group included young men and women: some had technical training as apprentices, others some formal education; some could read, others were illiterate.
This pioneering group trained with AJA's instructors, learning basic literacy and math skills, and how to do market research to develop ideas for services and products. Working in teams, they developed proposals for businesses, decided what skills they needed to accomplish their goals, and pitched their ideas to AJA staff.
The pilot group started service businesses in meat curing and pest control, and developed a range of artisan products such as soap, baked goods, furniture, toys (made from recycled materials), and traditional leather goods such as pencil holders, folders, and wallets.
After two grants and five years of support from Oxfam, AJA had trained 1,700 people and expanded into training programs for wood- and metal-workers. Since 2001, more than 2,000 people have benefited from AJA's programs.
Today, the metal-working program trains about 40 students over an 18-month period, including three months internships. They make their own tools, so when they graduate they are ready to either take a full-time job or start their own business with financing from AJA. The woodworking program trains about 43 people per year in three-month training sessions.
According to Souleymane Sarr, 65 percent of their graduates are self employed. "If they start their own business, they only need a little money because they have the tools they need and can become operational very quickly," Sarr said.
The other 35 percent of graduates work for businesses or the government. "If they want to become salaried employees, they have the professional skills. When they finish here, they are trained to work and have a productive life," Sarr said proudly. Last year half the wood- and metal-working students were hired by the army of Mali, which is eagerly recruiting people with technical skills.
Teaching Workers their Human Rights
In Mali, the value of hard work is instilled in children at a young age. With many entering apprenticeships as young as age nine, AJA makes a special effort to seek out young people working as apprentices. It teaches them about the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which protects children in the work force from harmful or exploitative employment, or work that interferes with their education. They also learn about HIV/AIDS and how to protect their health.
Innovative Curriculum
One interesting aspect of AJA's curriculum is its printed materials. Since many of the trainees at AJA either failed or left school, their experience with traditional education is mixed. "Each individual learns differently," said Sarr. "Some illiterate students find training programs easy; for others, it is more difficult. That's why we have developed some alternative tools."
With the help of program participants, AJA developed printed materials that read more like comics than text books. One such alternative tool is a boite à images, a wooden box with an opening through which a trainee can scroll through a large-format illustrated text, frame by frame. AJA also developed a valise du savoir, a small case containing basic literacy tools with which trainers can teach apprentices and street children, who can’t attend classes regularly, how to read. Each case is customized to teach literacy skills for a specific trade, such as brick-laying or sewing.
AJA's programs teach younger children in the local language Bambara, and older students in French. This ensures learning in terms easily understood by the youngest in the program, and as the learners gain more experience, their ability to handle affairs in French prepares them for more formal business.
