Apprenticeship program (Kinshasa, DR Congo)
Where: Kinshasa, Kimbondo and Ngafani neighbourhoods, Democratic Republic of Congo
Project: In collaboration with the Centre de Formation Kimbondo, we are improving literacy for young girls aged 12 to 22 through a basic education programme. We are also financing the centre’s infrastructure, École hôtelière de Kimbondo, to motivate young girls aged 17 to 21 and jobseekers (women and men) aged 18 to 45 to learn a profession.
Location: The Lycée Technique et Professionnel Kimbondo, founded in 1991, was one of the first schools in the DRC to award a state diploma in the hotel and catering sector. In 2012, it became the Centre de Formation Kimbondo (CFK), building on more than twenty years' experience. The CFK offers excellent and renowned teaching in a lively and dynamic environment. Two post-secondary programmes are available, offering a wide range of professional career opportunities in the hotel and restaurant industry. Since 2006, the institution has been strengthened by the creation of the Centre de Formation des Formateurs du Tertiaire (CFFT), which organises modular training courses open to a mixed and varied public.
Achievements:
Every year, on average,
=> 80 girls aged between 12 and 22 who dropped out of school have access to basic education,
=> more than 150 young people receive professional qualifications,
=> and an average of 100 salaried jobs or entrepreneurial activities are created.
=> More than 500 girls and women are taking part in leadership programmes that help to promote civic values throughout the country and encourage greater participation by women in various social and professional sectors.
Our latest achievement: a new generator
With the support of an account/project within the King Baudouin Foundation, which offered donors a tax deduction on part of their donations, we were able to purchase a new electricity generator. This enables us to run our training programmes despite the power cuts taking place almost daily.
Our new project: a certification centre
As part of the hospitality industry training programme provided by CFK, an independent assessment centre will be set up on its campus. The centre will aim to provide certifications that guarantee the quality of education in any of the country’s institutions offering professional training in the hospitality sector. It will have a kitchen- pastry-bakery laboratory, which will serve as a professional immersion site for students from Kimbondo and other centres in the city that do not have such workshops, as well as a place to organize the certification tests for their training. The diploma is recognised by the DRC's Ministry of Education, and the school also works in collaboration with the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne EHL. The centre expects 300 young people to get certified in their field there each year.
The funding required to set up the centre covers the fitting-out of the premises and the purchase of the equipment needed to carry out the project: split air conditioning units, a 475-litre refrigerator, freezers with solar panels, a semi-industrial oven, professional gas cookers, stainless steel work tables, deep fryers, digital scales, mixers and accessories, as well as individual cooking and baking utensils for students.
How can you help?
=> Through a payment to the IRIF account: International Resource Information aisbl, Bl. Brand Whitlock 36 – 1200 Brussels, 734-2041755-11 (KBC Bank) –
IBAN N°: BE30 7342 0417 551, Swift N°: KREDBEBB
=> or a donation to the new account/project deposited at the King Baudouin Foundation: BE10 0000 0000 0404 – BIC: GEBABEBB, with the payment
reference 623/3966/70091.
TRAINING COURSES OFFERED BY CFK:
1. Basic education: four-year literacy, remedial education and vocational training programme, for girls aged 12 to 22.
Where: the Kimbondo and Moluka social centres, established in 1995 and 2000 respectively, have the infrastructure needed to reach this objective.
Beneficiaries: 400 girls will complete the programme over the next 5 years, an average of 80 girls/year: 40 in Kimbondo and 40 in Moluka.
2. Professional formation: École hôtelière de Kimbondo
Where: Located in the commune of Mont-Ngafula, the second largest district of
Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo. The experience acquired by the Ecole Hôtelière has enabled it to carry out projects in the country's other provincial capitals, namely Lubumbashi, Goma and Moanda, as well as in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo.
Mission: To promote the development of technical and vocational training in DR Congo as a means of combating the poverty linked to unemployment, and therefore to adapt the educational offer to the requirements of companies in the sector that make up the job market.
Vision: To provide high-quality professional education in the service industry for young people and adults in order to promote skilled jobs; to support the quality and productivity of businesses in the service industry in order to strengthen the national economy. To achieve this, we need to start by training competent trainers.
I. Programme 1: Hotel and catering courses
A. Cursus BAC+ 3 in Hotel and catering
Description: a three-year training programme for multi-skilled technicians and service managers, aimed at integrating young girls aged 17 to 21 into the world of work, alternating with paid work placements in companies.
Recipient group: young girls aged 17 to 21
Average annual number of beneficiaries: 45 students
Professional integration rate: 100 % at the end of the course
B. Modular courses in hotel and restaurant management
Description: 6-month training courses leading to qualifications in catering or hotel accommodation, alternating with 3-month work placements for unemployed men and women wishing to enter the sector. Support for professional integration right through to recruitment.
Recipient group: young and not-so-young jobseekers aged 18 to 45.
Headcounts 2020-2023: 404 beneficiaries
II. Programme 2: training for trainers
The training team is composed of former students and beneficiaries. With the aim of continually improving its performance, the school is also developing an ongoing training programme for its trainers. Over the last few years (since 2017), they have benefited from annual capacity-building courses given by professional trainers from European hotel schools (Switzerland and France).
Programme objective: to upgrade the training of trainers; to restructure the BAC+3 programme based on the Swiss ‘Formation des spécialistes en Hôtellerie’ – ‘Hotel Specialist Training’ model and to implement dual training.
Number of beneficiaries: 8 Kimbondo trainers per year.
Training provider: Lycée Hôtelier Savoie-Leman (Thonon-les-Bains).
3. Entrepreneurship training:
The objective of this programme is to support the development of youth employment in Kinshasa through entrepreneurship and self-employment in promising sectors ofthe local economy.
Number of beneficiaries: an average of 60 young people per year.
Training providers: The training and coaching of young people in entrepreneurship is carried out in collaboration with specialised organisations:
RDC-Entreprise et Développement, the Congolese branch of the European Institute for Cooperation and Development (IECD) and the Fédération des
entreprises du Congo (FEC).
Partners:
– Local: the ADEFOR association and the Centre de Formation Kimbondo.
– Have supported or are supporting this project:
– The King Baudouin Foundation, through the opening of various ‘project accounts’, which allow IRIF (promoters of education) donors, to benefit from
tax relief for donations of more than €40 for various projects.
– ING Banking & Insurances. The contribution from this institution has enabled the IT workshop to be equipped with new, high-quality equipment: 7 laptops, 2 scanners, power stabilisers, etc.
– The municipality of Schilde. For more than 20 years, the support of this Antwerp municipality has made it possible to renew and maintain the equipment in the various workshops.
– Private individuals.
Your support, however modest, can make a big difference! Marcelina, one of the students, testifies:
I’m 17 years old and I would like to become someone good. I live in the Kimbondo neighbourhood with my uncle. I’m the third in a family of seven children. My uncle signed me up for the Kimbondo project to learn to read and write. Schools in my country are abandoned and classes are not regular. I would love to learn how to make cakes to have my own little cake shop. With the money I’d then save, I would like to help my unemployed father bring my little brothers back to Kinshasa. I want to know how to read and write so that one day I can have my place in society.
