February 28, 2025
The CPIR and INFOTEC centers, in collaboration with Helvetas Haiti, organized this Saturday, February 22 at the Le Recul hotel in Camp-Perrin, a certificate award ceremony for 60 young women and men who completed nine months of training in “Agricultural techniques and veterinary practices” as well as “Chained masonry”.
These training courses are part of the project Promotion of Professional Training during Employment in Internships and in Companies (PROFESE), supported by Medicor Foundation.
The PROFESE project targets selected vulnerable young people. This project is implemented according to Helvetas’ systemic approach of strengthening sectoral actors in order to create an employment network accessible to young people, with an emphasis on gender equity in the practice of professions. It is also based on the dual system which made it possible to combine theory and practice. The learners alternated between theoretical sessions in the classroom and practical sessions in the field.
”The dual method is one of the most suitable methods in our context since it provides the possibility of reducing the duration of training. It is part of what is called the skills-based approach which allows young people to quickly become familiar with theoretical concepts, while emphasizing practice. Internships in companies offer them the opportunity to get closer to the reality of the job market. In this sense, they kill two birds with one stone,” said Mr. Pélège Mathurin, Director of INFOTEC.
90 other young people were also trained as part of the project in the South-East department in 2024. This brings to 1121 the number of professionals able to enter the job market since the launch of the project in 2018.
” Benefiting from a free training program in a country as deprived of resources as Haiti is an extraordinary opportunity. Our parents have the will but they do not always have the means to finance our training, ” said Mergela Jean, certified in Agricultural Technique. ” I would have accomplished much more in my life if I had had a job before ,” said Andson Marcelin. Certified in Chain Masonry, he now thinks that his life ”will no longer be the same.”
” It’s always moving to see young people entering the world of work,” comments Jean-Christophe Goussaud, Country Director of Helvetas Haiti. “Today, with this ceremony, we have shown that there is still hope for Haiti. It proves that here, there are not only earthquakes and gangs, there are also positive things happening.” “Youth is the future of a country,” he concludes.
The aim of the PROFESE project is to boost the employability of young people in high-potential economic sectors, through more appropriate and market-oriented skills.
A kit containing a tape measure, a helmet, a pair of gloves, a level and a trowel was given to the young people who received their certificate in Chained Masonry at the end of the ceremony which took place in the presence of the deputy mayor of Camp-Perrin, Mrs. Marie Carla Nicolas and the representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, Mr. Ulrick Janvier. The young people who were trained in Agricultural Techniques and Veterinary Practices received pruning shears, a pair of boots, a pair of gloves and an agricultural trowel.