Cameroon has opened 646 apprenticeship places for young people in a program designed to bring vocational training closer to the skills companies actually need, although participation does not guarantee a job at the end of the course.
Cameroonians aged 15 to 30 have until 11:59 p.m. on September 11, 2026, to apply under the Secondary Education and Skills Development Support Project for Growth and Employment (PADESCE). The call for applications, launched August 28, offers training programs lasting no more than four to five months.
About 80% of the training will take place inside a company and 20% at a training center. The program involves 18 partner companies and 244 apprenticeship supervisors.
Applicants must hold the diploma or demonstrate the qualification level required for their chosen occupation, up to technician level. Applications must be submitted exclusively through the program’s official platform.
The 646 places cover 17 fields, including metal and metallurgical industries, automotive services, food processing and aquaculture, hotels and restaurants, transport and logistics, construction and public works, IT, digital technology and cybersecurity, renewable energy, agro-industry, agriculture, forestry, health, fashion design and patternmaking.
PADESCE says the occupations were selected based on needs identified by the companies that will host the apprentices.
The latest intake is larger than originally planned. In November 2025, PADESCE said the program would provide apprenticeships to 500 young people, also the target included in the World Bank’s results framework. The new total adds 146 places, an increase of 29.2%.
Training is funded, but no specific budget has been published
PADESCE will cover theoretical training costs, apprentice insurance, training kits, personal protective equipment and certification assessment fees. Apprentices will also receive financial support, while apprenticeship supervisors will receive allowances.
The call for applications does not specify the amount of these payments or the total budget for the 646-person intake.
PADESCE itself is backed by a €112.4 million concessional credit from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessional financing arm. At the fixed exchange rate of CFA655.957 per euro, that amounts to CFA73.73 billion.
That money does not finance only the 646 apprenticeships. It also supports PADESCE programs in general secondary education, skills development, project management and technical assistance.
The CFA73.73 billion therefore cannot be presented as the amount invested in this particular apprenticeship program, and the available documents do not provide enough information to calculate a cost per apprentice.
An apprenticeship does not guarantee a job
The selection process includes an administrative review, initial screening, an aptitude test, an interview, an assessment of behavioral skills and matching successful applicants with companies. Selected candidates will then sign apprenticeship contracts.
Those contracts do not require host companies to hire participants after their training. The program sets no target hiring rate and imposes no recruitment commitment on the 18 partner companies. Applications from women, people with disabilities compatible with the occupations offered and young people from all 10 regions are encouraged, but no quotas have been published by category or region.
PADESCE’s results framework nevertheless measures training effectiveness by the share of graduates who find a job or start their own business within six months. The target is a 15-percentage-point improvement from the baseline.
In a monitoring report archived on September 5, 2025, the World Bank said that figure was not yet available and that another follow-up survey was planned for 2026. The August 28 call for applications provides no updated results on employment outcomes for previous beneficiaries.
Latest national employment data date from 2021
Cameroon’s third Employment and Informal Sector Survey (EESI3) provides context for the program, although its figures do not describe labor market conditions in 2026. Data collection began on May 10, 2021, and the National Institute of Statistics published the main report on November 1, 2023.
The survey put the employment rate among people aged 15 to 34 at 39.3%, compared with 50.8% for the population aged 14 and older. The rate was 47.2% for young men and 31.3% for young women. The informal sector accounted for 86.6% of jobs.
The unemployment rate among people aged 14 and older stood at an estimated 6.1%. The frequently cited 23% figure does not measure underemployment alone; it combines unemployment with time-related underemployment. A broader measure of labor underutilization, which also includes potential workers, stood at 26.2%.
Rates of 27.3% for people aged 15 to 34 and 30% for those aged 15 to 24, which appeared in an earlier version, do not appear under that definition in the official main EESI3 report and were therefore removed.
For the 646 participants, the more relevant measure will come after the program ends: how many earn certification and, six months later, how many have found jobs or started businesses.
P.N.N