Presentation of the Yaounde CIOP, by Mr. Gaston WOUAFEU, Director
Created by Decree N°2020/2597 of 19 June 2020, the Yaounde Vocational Information and Guidance Centre (CIOP), which some people call the “CIOP-father”, is an offshoot of the project to set up two pilot School, University and Vocational Guidance Centres (COSUP) in Yaounde and Douala.
Through this project implemented between 2010 and 2013, the Cameroonian Government through the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training and its partners including the OFPC of Geneva and the International Labour Office, intended to lay the foundations of a national guidance policy. Indeed, an analysis of the causes of youth unemployment and underemployment, described as a “social cancer” by the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul BIYA, had revealed the absence of a coordinated and harmonised school, university and vocational guidance policy that could encourage young people to opt for the growth-generating sectors.
At the end of the pilot phase of this project, important achievements deserved to be perpetuated, in particular:
– The existence of a public guidance structure opened to both young and old;
– The reception every working day by guidance experts of any person wishing to be accompanied in his or her guidance;
– The existence of a regularly updated guidance website. www.orientation.cm;The existence of a cyberspace available free of charge to users for research on employment and vocational training issues;
– The existence of specialised documentation on employment and vocational training issues;
Thus, after the opening of the Douala Centre in 2013, the territorial network reached its cruising speed in 2022 with the opening of the Maroua, Ngaoundéré and Bamenda Centres. Construction work on the Bafoussam Centre is progressing considerably.
For having had the honor of leading the project and currently directing the Yaounde Center while supporting the newly created Centers, we express our gratitude to our hierarchy and commit ourselves to working more for the coverage of the ten regions and for the influence of these specialized structures of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training.
Mrs Massah Rosaline
Secretary
Mrs Abena Belinga Berthe
C/SAF
Mrs Madjida Imene
C/SOP
Mr. Mbouobouo Amadou
C/SIP
CIOP MISSIONS
The CIOP’s missions are:
- To offer everyone a set of services enabling them to have exhaustive and objective information on jobs, skills and qualifications required to practice them, training and certification schemes, as well as training organisations and the quality labels from which they benefit;
- To provide personalised advice and services to persons wishing to access a job or training;
- To ensure that companies recruiting a workforce have the necessary pre-selection test;
- To draw up skills assessments.
CIOP ORGANIZATION
As a public structure for professional orientation, the CIOP’s services for its target audiences, young and old, are organised around six main areas:
– The reception and information area;
– The area for information on professions and training;
– The area for orientation and building a future project;
– The area for preparing to find a job;
– The reading area,
– The Cyber-space.
These different spaces are in line with Decree No. 2020/2591/PM of 19 June 2020, which in its article 7 states that “Placed under the coordination of a Centre Director, any vocational information and guidance centre shall comprise at least the following bodies:
– an administrative and financial service, or any other body in its place;
– a vocational guidance service, or any other body in its place;
– a vocational information service, or any other body in its place.
HOW THE CIOP WORKS
As a public service, the Center for Professional Information and Orientation of Yaoundé receives instantly, free of charge and without an appointment, all users from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.