Supporting youth entrepreneurship in Casablanca

In Morocco, within the framework of the Najah project conducted with our partners Al Karam and L'Heure Joyeuse, we support young people in Casablanca. We work with young people struggling to find a job towards socio-professional integration and entrepreneurship. With our local partner, L'Heure Joyeuse, we offer training support adapted to young people to enable them to create their own business.

Last month, 21 young people trained in business creation presented their business plan to a financing committee for a seed fund that will allow them to launch their project this year! Let's take this opportunity to congratulate them and to highlight the innovative support to self-employment provided by L’Heure Joyeuse.

Youth, the driving force behind Morocco's economic growth

Although Morocco has been experiencing sustained economic growth for more than a decade, the unemployment rate in the Kingdom is struggling to decrease. Access to the job market is especially difficult for urban youth, aged between 15 and 24. Since the beginning of the health crisis, the situation has continued to deteriorate with nearly two million Moroccans losing their jobs. In this context, L'Heure Joyeuse's support for self-employment is all the more necessary because it offers young people the opportunity to become key players in economic and social development.

The accompaniment to the launching of young companies, a multi-step process

Faced with the challenge of economic development, our local partner has created a multi-step entrepreneurial support program to guide young people and enable them to develop a project in line with their interests and local demand. Our partner organizes awareness workshops in neighborhood associations in order to get in touch with young people and introduce them to entrepreneurship. Those who wish to develop a business join a 3-month entrepreneurship training course during which the young people draw up a business plan.

This training is continually adapted to the young people’s needs, and aims to valorize them and help them to concretize their professional projects! This personalized support encourages the creation of a wide variety of projects ranging from the marketing of home-delivered fruit and vegetable baskets to the delivery of ready-to-wear clothing or audiovisual services for events.

Once ready, the young people present their project to the Financing Committee composed of an external jury and the professionals of L'Heure Joyeuse. This is a space for discussion with the specialists present, allowing the young people to test and perfect their business plans.

After the deliberations of the Committee which met in February, the 21 projects presented were validated without any reserve. The young entrepreneurs will thus benefit from a seed fund and will be supported for 6 months by our partner in the launch of their activity.

The third promotion of the entrepreneurship training started on February 23rd. It is open to 21 participants, who will follow 13 training modules and will present, in turn, their business plans at the next financing committee in May!