Februrary, 2010: The Stern Stewart Institute is currently considering setting up a vocational college in Ouahigouya to provide further opportunities for college graduates. Therefore 83 students in their final year at the Lycée Moderne de l’Amitié were surveyed concerning their career plans.
Before the survey, the first idea was to train tailors. That’s why the students’ answers had a little surprise in store: While only few wanted to embark on a crafts profession after graduating from the lycée, more than 15% wanted to earn their living as an accountant. Accounting is not only known as a well-paid profession, it also includes the possibility of working with a computer, a great attraction for students who mainly grew up in a home without electricity.
Nevertheless tailoring and other crafts are an important source of income for less educated students, such as graduates from public middle schools, the second big target group for the future professional school.
While the decision about professions in which they are going to embark on training in has not yet been made, the vocational college will definitely focus on educating entrepreneurs who will be able to create their own jobs.
Students support this aim, as demonstrated by one answer in the survey: “I want to become an entrepreneur because I want to be a business man who is known throughout the whole world one day!”