Nearly 15% of Moroccan Youth Have Not Received Any Formal Education

Rabat – Almost 15% of Morocco’s young population aged between 15 to 24 hold no academic or vocational training degrees.

According to a recent report from Morocco’s Higher Commission for Planning (HCP), a state research institution, only a fifth of Morocco’s young population hold academic degrees.

The bulk of Morocco’s youth population, around 64% of young people hold high school degrees or lower qualifications, the report says.

Published on international youth day, the report shows that 26% of Morocco’s youth, or 1.5 million individuals remain unemployed. The rate is even higher among women at 73%.

Unemployment among young Moroccan women is more prominent in rural areas with a staggering 81% of young women unemployed, the report specifies.

The report further indicates that among young people who should be receiving a high school education, 13%, or 270,000 people, are not enrolled in schools nor are they receiving any training or working.

The trend is unsurprisingly higher among young women, who make up 198,000 young people with no occupation or education.

HCP data reveals that of Morocco’s 5.6 million youth, 26% or 1.5 million are currently not working, nor are they enrolled in vocational or academic programs.

Nearly 73.4% of the unemployed youth population are young women. 41.3% of unemployed young women are married and 65.7% are degree holders.

Despite the significant strides Morocco has made to address youth unemployment, the rate remains one the worst globally and regionally.

Adding to the woes of youth unemployment, Morocco currently faces the grim prospect of a proliferating shadow economy that is employing 77% of the country’s labor force, according to some estimates.