The Director General of the National Agency for Vocational Training (AGEFOP), Karitia Coulibaly-De Medeiros, and the Director of the Support to the Development of Work-Based Training Project (ADEFA) at GIZ, Bavoux Raphaël, signed on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, at the agency’s headquarters in Abidjan Marcory, a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening work-based training, notably through improving the information system on labor market skill needs.

For Ms. Coulibaly-De Medeiros, the signing of this memorandum highlights the importance given to work-based training, an educational system that combines theoretical periods at training centers with practical periods in companies.

The main goal of the partnership is to strengthen the institutional and operational capacities of AGEFOP, so that it has a functional vocational training information system, structured and regularly updated with reliable data on skill needs, ensuring the deployment of training offers adapted to these needs.

The partnership will also focus on strengthening AGEFOP’s institutional and human capacities in training engineering, as well as in conducting, analyzing, and capitalizing on skills needs assessment studies (EIBC); developing and implementing a monitoring mechanism on company skill needs; and conducting two pilot skills needs assessment studies in collaboration with partners from the productive sector.

According to the ADEFA project director, the memorandum reflects the shared commitment of the two institutions to jointly transform the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system sustainably, in order to better align training with employment and respond more effectively to labor market needs.

“Through the ADEFA project, we support AGEFOP in the progressive development of a TVET information system based on skills needs analysis. This support takes the form of a series of structured action-based trainings for AGEFOP teams, covering the entire cycle of producing these analyses,” explained Mr. Bavoux.

One of AGEFOP’s key roles, as the State’s vocational training engineering agency in Côte d’Ivoire, is to identify the skill needs of public and private companies in order to offer training programs adapted to the needs identified.