Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Office for Vocational Training (Onfp), Professor Mamoussé Diagne returns in this interview to the role of the Onfp in responding to people’s questions in terms of employment and training. on the one hand, and on the other hand, the implementation of the will of the State to regulate the question of employment and employability. To enable this strategic institution to fully play its role and meet the needs of companies and professional branches, Professor Mamoussé Diagne believes that the percentage granted to ONFP under the Cfce must be increased.
What contribution might an institution like the Onfp make in the era of fast track?
A decisive contribution because it is not even us who decide this role, but the populations through their questions, their challenges on how to ensure that our children no longer pose this terrible equation “barça or barsak”, c that is to say uncontrolled emigration, because we cannot stay put without doing anything. It is therefore the people who ask the question themselves. To this end, we are obliged to hear them, to listen to them and to lend an attentive ear to their concerns. I used to say that there is no worse enemy for a society than people who have nothing to lose. People who have nothing to lose are people who make those who have something to lose lose it. It translates the well-known adage of the Senegalese: “thiéré bi bouma thi lekoul heup thi souf”, which would mean in French: “I put sand in the couscous if I don’t eat it.” Consequently, today, in different circles, and that’s not just in Senegal, it’s perhaps globalization that has that as a consequence. Cities, which are definable as places to live, are surrounded by suburbs. That is, places where hopeless people live most of the time. The day the suburbs go up in flames, and unfortunately this is what is happening, we will all be in danger. So this question is not even the Onfp, but it is society that poses this huge question mark from people who have nothing to lose and who say “daniou beug kheuy, daniou beug tekki “. And the speech of the President of the Republic, Macky Sall, seemed so important to me because he spoke in his swearing in, that is to say in the most solemn language, of the training of young people. It is therefore a question of training them well from structures whose vocation it is. He thus came to speak of the National Office for Vocational Training (Onfp) in an absolutely nominative manner. So it’s not by chance. He spoke of the Onfp as being one of these structures that he intends to support in his missions, precisely to be able to answer this huge question. Therefore, providing young people with training that allows them to be useful on the spot to themselves, to their families and to Senegalese society, so that they no longer have any reason to go abroad, to fuel emigration savage. I think this is an absolutely fundamental question, both for the thousands of people who ask it and for the speech of the President of the Republic, who answers it as a keynote speech, and our structures which are the means, the armed arms allowing to put in place this policy, to realize this enormous promise which currently nourishes the hope of the Senegalese populations. So question-answer on the general or programmatic level, and answer on the level of the practical empirical realization of what the President of the Republic has promised. He returned to it in another address to the Senegalese Nation, but this time from another angle, that of citizenship. I was invited to a local television station, following this speech, to talk regarding it with other guests. There was a panel on this issue. While the President of the Republic spoke of citizenship, of the way Senegalese behave, of these ways that are deviant. This deviance was also linked to the question of employment. He who has something to do, who has something useful to do and who knows that in any case anomie, that is to say total disorder in a society, would bother him, has no interest in destroying the social order, but in managing it since it is in his interest. In both cases, from different angles, the President asked these questions and the ONFP is a structure whose raison d’être is truly to translate this policy, this promise and this expectation.
What position should this institution have to respond effectively to the expectations of the Head of State and to the concerns of the Senegalese?
In my opinion, the National Vocational Training Office, since I have been there, has always tried, in the definition of its missions, to ensure that it meets the expectations of the populations, but also and above all, companies that employ. This is what is so fundamental; to make sure to be the interface between the populations on the one hand, who are in the suburbs that I knew myself, being a teacher, and that the school left on the road, in particular who find themselves unemployed , and the professional branches on the other hand, which can employ them. We are interested in the professional branches which are fairly represented on the Board of Directors, because there are the employers and the workers of the companies on the Board of Directors in order to be able to define with them a set of objectives that we we can transform from the pedagogical point of view into an item, into a module in order to be able to teach them to people who have not received training, so as to make them socially useful, relevant for employment in the societies they wish to integrate. This is why the training is done according to the level they have, and it goes from level 0 to people who left school in the medium term (primary, intermediate, secondary level), and even some times people from a higher level. You’ve probably heard of unemployed masters, and that’s a sign of failure for a society in some way. How can we now ensure that all Senegalese, wherever they are, manage to master knowledge and know-how that can enable them to be useful to Senegalese society? That’s the Onfp. This, in order to allow them to have no temptation for elsewhere. That is to say, to go and develop other societies when we had formed them, seen them grow here, to send them to form other societies which simply reap the fruits that we ourselves have sown. But, perhaps we have sown badly, badly maintained, it is up to us now to make efforts and to rectify the situation. The Onfp is a state tool that serves this purpose. It is therefore an intermediary instrument between the will of the leaders of this country and the populations who are seeking employment, training in order to be employed.
Does the institution have sufficient resources to face these challenges that you have just listed?
You are asking an excellently relevant question which is the very exact translation of this adage which says: “When you want something, you give yourself the means to do so.” In reality, nowadays, everything is defined in terms of means. There are countries where there are structures like ours and which have very high resources. This is the case of Côte d’Ivoire. You will note, however, that the most important meetings of the Onfp Board of Directors are those held at the beginning of the year, when the budget is put in place for the definition of policies aimed at achieving the objectives that the he institution has set itself and which the Onfp must achieve at all costs. There is also the end-of-year meeting which would be similar to a review meeting, in addition to the mid-term meetings. What should be noted and remembered during these different phases is how this policy is implemented? How are the means made available to us, on which the achievement of the objectives depends, articulated to better respond to the concerns of the populations on the one hand, and on the other hand, to materialize our commitments vis-à-vis the State with who we have a contract of objectives? At this level, it must be said that we ensure this without any concessions, we use systematic internal controls and also external controls which are on the way and which allow absolutely independent structures to judge our expenses, the way in which we have spent and the results we have achieved.
Shouldn’t we oil the system more and redefine the roles to avoid overlaps between the Onfp and the 3fpt?
There are even people who go so far as to think that it is a sort of double, and that conflicts might even arise in the approach of these two types of organization. I think not. For the simple and good reason that, between people who finance programs, people who have left training and want to set up as young entrepreneurs, which I call training follow-up, there is a structure that to keep busy. For our part, at the level of the Onfp, we take care of training to enable beneficiaries to have the skills and qualifications required to perform a function. From that point on, we should rather speak of complementarity, and this complementarity actually requires that there can be periodic meetings, a perfect understanding between the two structures so that we don’t step on each other’s toes. . Especially since we don’t have the same field of action. I totally agree that if we don’t have that perception, there is a risk of a strong perception of conflicting overlap, and that would be the worst thing. Because at that point, you’ll either have to merge them, totally separate them, or put them in totally different options. But it is neither. Complementarity and daily work must prevail between the two structures.
The Head of State reiterated his commitment to the recovery of the Cfce. What is the procedure to adopt to allow a correct repayment of this tax?
The Cfce is the percentage that the various companies pay so that we can constitute something relatively consistent in order to be able to train the men and women, in short, the human resources they need. Therefore, it is to have reciprocal service relationships. Thus, the greater the share of Cfce devoted to the Onfp or similar structures, the more eagerly we have the possibility of making available to companies and requesting structures, products that are quantitatively and qualitatively important products. There is no problem for that. Last year, we had a relatively small part of our budget coming from the Cfce (6%). We have very often been able to operate thanks to the resourcefulness of the Onfp, which also relies on external cooperation. For example, with the Luxembourg Cooperation, we had to achieve a lot. It is therefore necessary, under the Cfce, that the share allocated to the Onfp is greater. I am delighted to have heard the President of the Republic specify that he will strengthen his support for the Onfp and the youth. I can well imagine that today, not only will our share of the Cfce be stabilized, better still, it will be increased in proportions that are significant so that our results are significantly increased. Therefore, it would be a question of consistency, of common sense. Without means, we cannot invent.
