Agadir – The City of Trades and Skills (CMC) in Marrakech-Safi officially opened its first cohort, receiving more than 1,550 first-year trainees.
The campus represents the ninth project completed under the national Cities of Trades and Skills program, coming a few months after the opening of the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab site in November.
The launch ceremony gathered Younes Sekkouri, Minister of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment and Skills, and Loubna Tricha, Director General of the Office of Vocational Training and Labor Promotion (OFPPT), alongside regional officials and institutional partners.
The construction mobilized a total budget of MAD 466 million. MAD 330 million of that amount financed on construction works, while MAD 136 million were allocated to equipment.
The CMC can accommodate up to 3,000 trainees. According to the project presentation, it delivers a “varied and multidisciplinary training program in harmony with the requirements and needs of the economic ecosystem of the Marrakech-Safi region,” aligning course content with local labor market demand.
Developers structured the academic offer using what they describe as a “collective intelligence approach,” consulting economic stakeholders and institutional actors to define 75 diploma and qualification tracks grouped into eight professional clusters.
The CMC relies on a “learning by doing” model that prioritizes hands-on experience and active experimentation over purely theoretical instruction.
To achieve this, the institution has installed applied training platforms designed to “faithfully reproduce the real conditions of the company,” allowing trainees to work in environments that mirror professional settings.
New hubs
The institution structures its training around specialized hubs, with the management and commerce hub including a virtual simulation company where students practice emerging business roles.
In the digital and artificial intelligence hub, a digital factory provides “an interactive innovation space to bring their ideas to life, hone their skills, and actively participate in projects focused on digital transformation.”
The tourism, hospitality, and catering hub features a training hotel and restaurant that simulate daily operations in the sector.
The healthcare hub incorporates a training healthcare unit, while the industry hub operates a training factory that recreates real industrial workflows and enables multidisciplinary projects.
Additional facilities include a personal services hub equipped with a nursery and teaching apartment, as well as dedicated spaces for crafts and for art and graphic industries.
Strengthening the regional training ecosystem
The opening of the CMC reinforces OFPPT’s broader presence in the Marrakech-Safi region. For the 2025–2026 academic year, the training system provides 33,181 training places across 23 vocational training establishments, six partner centers, and five centers established under the Prisoner Reintegration Program.
Regionally, OFPPT offers 77 diploma programs, 33 qualifying courses, and 11 professionalizing courses across key sectors including tourism, industry, digital technology, health, construction, logistics, crafts, and the arts.
Training spans four levels, specialized technician, technician, qualification, and specialization, alongside the vocational baccalaureate, the college pathway, and qualifying programs.