Industrial and commercial job training for women project in Morocco

Ex-post evaluation covers period from 1979 to 1984 and is based on site visitation, interviews with beneficiaries, and document review. The project was extremely successful. Working with the Ministry of Labor's Office of Technical Training and Job Development (OFPPT), the project recruited young women with at least 9 years schooling for training in existing MOL programs, primarily in drafting, electricity, and electronics. Over the course of the project, 660 women were enrolled in industrial, construction, and commercial courses, but more importantly, the level of female enrollments in all OFPPT training courses has sharply increased. For example, the proportion of women enrolled in industrial courses doubled between 1979-80, nearly doubled again during 1981-82, and steady increases have followed. Cost per trainee was low, between $3,138 and $4,367, depending on the amortization method used. At the time of the final evaluation in 1983, 70% of all women graduates from pilot centers had been placed in jobs, and graduates interviewed said they were comfortable in their positions and respected by fellow employees and their families alike. Although none had passed baccalaureate exams, they tended to earn as much or more than those in the public sector with baccalaureates. Although dropout rates and placement figures have not been strictly monitored by OFPPT, the consensus among graduates, instructors, and project personnel is that the dropout rate for males and females is about the same, and that the employment rate for OFPPT female graduates is much higher than for women with no vocational training. The lack of reliable data on placement, salaries, and dropout rates, however, points up a significant problem, which was the OFPPT's inability to adequately monitor project activities. Funds used for non-essential technical reports might have been better used for TA for developing and implementing a monitoring system. Other problems with the project were the OFPPT's failure to provide dormitory space for the women and the fact that special entrance requirements for women were dropped by the end of the project. Nevertheless, future projects might use a streamlined version of this project design as a prototype for achieving great impact through relatively simple, yet significant, change. Such projects might also benefit from greater emphasis on shorter term participant training and job placement components.