King Mohammed dedicates vocational training center for minor inmates

Morocco's King Mohammed VI dedicated this Monday in the town of Sale, near Rabat, a vocational training center for minor inmates, built by the Mohammed VI foundation for the reintegration of detainees.

The new center is part of the pilot project for the social and professional rehabilitation of prisoners set forth by the foundation and the Moroccan office of vocational training and job promotion (OFPPT).

A total of 240 inmates will follow training in computer sciences, car mechanics, car electricity, knitting, hair-dressing, soldering, carpentry, gardening and other crafts. The center also comprises a music room, a library, a multimedia space.

The center was built at a cost of 6 million DH (around 600,000 Euro), its equipment cost 4.3 million DH (430,000 Euro) while its annual operating cost is estimated at some 2 million DH (200,000 Euro).

The Salé training center for minor inmates is part of the pilot project currently set forth in 9 penitentiary institutions where integrated projects are implemented in anti-illiteracy, informal education, socio-cultural, sports and religious activities and vocational training.

The project will be extended starting 2005 to other prisons and will benefit hundreds of inmates.

The pilot project is carried out with the support of numerous local partners, including the ministries of national education of culture and of agriculture, the department in charge of literacy and informal education and the secretariat in charge of youth.

It has also received international backing for the development of human resources, the creation of a job-search mechanism, and the implementation of an appropriate curriculum.