by Dorothée Meijer
MasterPeace Morocco in collaboration with Tandem 360 and the Fadilia Foundation (Egypt) organized a week-long bootcamp in Agadir from October 1st till October 7th, 2021.
The bootcamp focused on soft skills training for young people, particularly those getting ready to embark on their professional journeys; preparing them for life, work, and life-long learning.
I had the honour of being one of the trainers during this week and it was one of the best experiences in my life! This is thanks to the group of young participants with their eagerness to learn, the wide variety of the training program, the dancing and music in the evenings and last but not least the venue near the beach.
Participating students
The participants were a diverse group of Moroccan university students (BA or MA) between 18- 22 years old. Universities in Morocco mainly focus on transferring hard skills knowledge and the higher education space is extremely competitive. So this group of participants, realizing that soft skills will enhance their chances in the future, signed up for the program.
Out of 140 applicants, 15 were selected. This group proved to be extremely talented, despite the fact that many were not yet aware of their talent. Others had already started their own social businesses as a first step to entering the job market.
Motivation was high to learn and to practice lessons from our soft skills curriculum. To me it felt they only needed an extra push to be more confident and let their talents flourish.
Program
The program offered a variety of workshops: communication skills, problem solving, team work, negotiation skills, personal branding and opportunity hunting. Workshops were conducted by MasterPeace team members and by external speakers from the local business community in Agadir. Main language at the bootcamp was English, though French, Moroccan Arabic and Tamazight were also used.
Participants got the chance to show and further improve their skills in different simulation workshops. You could see their talents and confidence grow over the week. The mentoring and coaching by the training team made them take huge steps in their personal growth.
To double the impact of their learnings the participants will share their knowledge with other students in online webinars in the next month.
Fun activities
There is little doubt that to grow your talents you need a safe space. The organizing MasterPeace team took steps to make the participants feel comfortable by organizing dance and music activities as well as different games in the evenings. After the recent period of Covid-lockdown it personally felt like a revival of body and mind to enjoy the music and share the dancing.
This week was amazing! I got inspired by many personal stories: about being a young woman in Morocco, being from a minority background, how to overcome mental health problems, or social anxiety issues. I can say I learned as much from the students as the students learned from me. Without a doubt, my horizons have been broadened!
