Through photographs, videos and two books (Journal of the Land and Journal of the Sea), the International Labour Office wants to make public the daily life in the different phases of the projects and in the beneficiaries’ journey, and to showcase concrete results in the eco-construction and artisanal fisheries sectors in Mauritania.
« The Training School (Chantier École) is a dual training methodology, part of which is spent in the training centre and part of which is spent on an educational worksite or in a mentoring company. This process helps students to consolidate their knowledge by carrying out concrete tasks in a real work situation that meets both the student’s learning needs and the community’s need for infrastructure.
The objective of a Training School is to train young people in a trade, based on infrastructure construction or maintenance activities, while offering them socio-professional support.
This training is aimed at people who have not succeeded in the traditional education system. The vocational training and support of the beneficiaries enables the socio-professional integration of young people, improving their employability and their ability to create a business.
The added value of this programme is undoubtedly the certification of the skills acquired, officially recognised by the State.
The International Labour Office, within the framework of its Chantier École and Pecobat projects financed by the European Union, has been able to experiment with this approach in various localities in Mauritania. «
« What is good for rural employment must be good for the climate.
« In Mauritania, raw earth construction and its associated socio-economic sector have a strong development potential. Earth material is widely available and at a low cost. Soil is the most suitable material for the extreme climatic conditions that characterise the country for long periods of time during the year, as it is an excellent regulator of temperature and hygrometry…
The architectural proposal of the schools, planned within the framework of the Pecobat project, meet a double challenge: the need for school infrastructure in Mauritania and the requirements for developing techniques that maximise the use of local materials and create jobs, without giving up on innovation. «
Sélibaby Training School
Process of making traditional bricks from earth and straw
« The Pecobat project has taken the challenge of using traditional know-how to promote eco-construction. The women of the Yirla Women’s Potters’ Association cooperative were commissioned for making fundamental pieces to improve the energy efficiency of the schools and the thermal quality of the building in periods of high heat. They made the 800 ventilation pipes from clay for the schools built by the project, using the same artisanal techniques, handed down from generation to generation, as for the water pots and other traditional ceramic objects. «
Road Training School
Road works Training School Programme, Monguel
Construction Training School
Construction Training School Programme, Kaédi
« Intended to train young fishermen, processors, mechanics, carpenters, traders and classifiers of fishery products, the scheme set up within the framework of the ILO’s Promopêche project, financed by the European Union, applies the Chantier École methodology: short training period (4 to 6 months), practical apprenticeships in the workplace, complementary courses in employability and life skills. This pedagogical organisation illustrates the Training School pedagogy, i.e. learning by doing.
The ILO’s Promopêche project, using an innovative approach, targets young men and women to a short training course leading to qualifications with a high integration potential. Priority is given to youth from disadvantaged backgrounds and potential migrants for whom the most likely prospect of finding a job and integrating into working life lies in access to training. »
Through faces and portraits, here are the stories of the people of the interior of this country, men and women on the move who build their paths with great courage.
Adama Wone, 27 years old, is a young Mauritanian who was unemployed and without any qualifications.
There are many people in this situation in Mauritania, because the training on offer is often insufficient or does not meet the real needs of the market.
Adama is one of the beneficiaries of the Chantier École project.
As a formworker, he is now proud to have a trade and to live with dignity from his work.
Haby is 25 years old and comes from Boghé.
She started with topography training. Determined and ambitious, she started her own business with the help of the ILO. Today, in addition to winning contracts, she employs other people.
Aichetou, 25, is a young girl from Aleg in the south of the country.
She is driven by a desire to learn and work. As a woman, she has to fight to find her place in the construction industry, a professional field traditionally reserved for men. Today, Aichetou is a topographer’s assistant and has found work. She is aware that changing mentalities is a long process, but she is ready. She has no doubt that she will succeed.
Abd El Nour Horma, logistics coordinator of the Naval Academy’s Centre for Fishing Qualification and Training (CQFMP), is the privileged contact for those wishing to train for the fishing industry.
It has seen more than 3,000 young people, boys and girls, undergoing training at the Naval Academy.
Abd El Nour is one of the indirect beneficiaries of the Promopêche programme.
He has received support in terms of capacity building for his trainers, as well as support in terms of training engineering.
According to him, the Qualification Centre is benefiting from this new impetus.
Roghaya M’Bodj became the head of a line of 134 women working in the artisanal fishing sector.
She has received training in small business development. Today she replicates the training she received through Promopêche and teaches the women the basics of management as Director of the processing centre « La Sirène ».
Housseinou Kassougué and Cheikh Thiam have experience.
Respectively as National Coordinator of Training and HIMO and National Coordinator of Protection and Social Dialogue within the ILO, they continue to put their skills to good use in their countries.
With the Chantier École methodology, the International Labour Office supports the construction of various infrastructures, including schools, colleges, training centres, agri-food centres, roads, infrastructures for artisanal fishing landing points and their access roads to markets.
For the schools, the choice was made to use sustainable construction techniques and solutions, including the technical concept of the Nubian Vault (www.lavoutenubienne.org), which is an adaptation of the original ancient technique of the Nubian Vault.
Essentially using widely available local materials (raw earth in the form of adobes and mortar for the entire above-ground structure) that do not require firing or stabilisation (no compression, no addition of hydraulic binders); and using basic tools and relatively simple technical skills, this construction concept has proved to be totally adapted to Mauritania and relevant to its main infrastructure needs.
The schools are composed of two pavilions, three classrooms, an administrative building, a caretaker’s lodge and two sanitary blocks located in an eight thousand square metre courtyard surrounded by a fence wall that secures the site.
First the gesture…
The films describe controlled, mastered gestures, superimposed on hesitant, awkward ones, revealing the master-apprentice relationship, against the backdrop of the transmission-learning partnership.
Training schools based on the transmission and acquisition of knowledge: knowledge linked to material techniques for the construction of schools (Dar Salam) and roads (Monguel, construction of a road) within the framework of the Land Project (Pecobat) but also to maritime techniques within the framework of the Sea Project (Promopêche).
The films focus on visual description and the way training is presented: learning techniques including visual control, tactile guidance but also learning by exploration where apprentices spend time with the material in order to master it and in the water in order to familiarise themselves with the foreign element of the sea.
Beyond the apprenticeship, the mastery of craft techniques for making objects (M’Bahé, water pots and chimneys) by a women’s cooperative is portrayed, describing the knowledge and transition from apprentice to professional.
Then the word….
Silence occupies the sound field, fuelled by the noise of the work tools and activities. Speech is added at times to complement the gestures with explanations during the training sessions, but also to tell the story of the context in which these young people are evolving through life stories (Dickel).
The camera becomes part of the people and their activities without disturbing them, respecting their work rhythm and their break time, unpretentiously introducing the viewer to the different locations through long sequence shots.
The films offer a journey along the Mauritanian coastline, comparing the training of apprentice fishermen with real life in a fishing port (Nouadhibou, around artisanal fishing) but also a journey to the interior of the country, to the heart of focal points that are destined to be transformed, allowing people to move around and for life to develop (Sélibaby, the birth of a neighbourhood).
