The critical gaps are in the melt shop, the caster and supervision, and certification is the weakest link

4.1 Where the gaps are: an assessment by occupational family

Figure 4.1 summarises Cameroon Steel’s assessment of the gap between what a phased EAF works needs and what Cameroon can supply, for ten occupational families and four dimensions: the stock of experienced workers in Cameroon, the capacity of Cameroonian institutions to train new ones, the availability of a recognised certification, and the time needed to reach independent competence. Scores are judgements on a four-step scale, informed by the evidence in Chapters 2 and 3 and by the training durations in Chapter 5; the method is set out in Annex A. They are meant to set priorities, not to rank people or institutions.

Source: Cameroon Steel assessment (method and scoring rules in Annex A), drawing on INS, EESI3 [S12], institutional sources in Chapter 3 [S18][S21][S22][S24][S25] and World Bank Enterprise Surveys [S15].

Three groups emerge.

Critical gaps: steelmaking process and supervision. Electric arc furnace and ladle-furnace operation, continuous casting and the supervision of a continuous process are rated critical on most dimensions. Cameroon’s steel industry is made up mainly of re-rollers with a few small melt shops [S08], so the pool of experienced melters and casters is small and already employed; no Cameroonian programme teaches steelmaking (Chapter 3); and no national certificate exists for these occupations. Forming a competent melter takes two to three years after initial training; forming a shift manager who can run a melt shop and caster through the night takes much longer (Chapter 5).

Large gaps: rolling, automation and metallurgy. Rolling-mill operation and roll-shop machining, electrical and automation work, and laboratory metallurgy have a partial local base. Douala’s rolling mills employ experienced operators and roll-shop machinists, and the ISTD and IUTs train electrical and mechanical technicians [S07][S21][S22]. But the base is small relative to demand from a growing cluster, much of it is already employed, and the step from a teaching laboratory to a modern mill’s drives, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and spectrometers is large.

Moderate or small gaps: maintenance, welding, HSE, logistics. Mechanical maintenance and welding draw on a wide base of technicians and tradespeople trained formally or on the job; health, safety and environment (HSE) officers are trained for other industries; crane operation, driving and logistics are common skills. Here the gap lies less in competence than in proof of competence: recognised certificates, documented experience and familiarity with the procedures and permit systems of a heavy-industry site.

4.2 A skills matrix for a phased EAF works

Table 4.1 translates the assessment into a matrix of the main roles, the competences that define them, the entry qualification that fits Cameroon’s education system, the certification or standard that demonstrates competence, and the training route. It is the basis for the workforce plan in Chapter 9 and for curriculum co-design with schools (Chapter 10).

Table 4.1 Skills matrix for the main roles of a phased EAF long-products works

Source: Cameroon Steel analysis. Times to competence are planning assumptions (Annex A; Figure 5.2). Standards: ISO 9606-1 [S59]; ISO 45001 [S58]; mandatory national rebar standard NC 236/2024/06 [S67].

4.3 Welding is the most portable skill, and the easiest to certify

Welding deserves particular attention because it is needed throughout a plant’s life, from construction to maintenance, and because its competence can be tested objectively. The international standard ISO 9606-1 specifies the qualification testing of welders for fusion welding of steels: a welder is tested on a specific process, material, joint type and position, and receives a certificate valid for a defined period if the test piece passes visual and destructive or radiographic examination [S59]. The International Institute of Welding, launched in June 1948 and counting 59 member countries at its 2015 peak, runs a harmonised qualification system, coordinated with the European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting since 2009. Authorised Nominated Bodies administer its examinations, issue diplomas and authorise Approved Training Bodies; where a country has no IIW member, organisations can work with an Authorised Nominated Body of another country [S60][S78].

Cameroon has a large population of welders trained informally in workshops, but few of them hold a certificate that a heavy-industry employer or a foreign equipment supplier will accept. For this paper we did not identify a body in Cameroon that tests and certifies welders to ISO 9606-1 on a regular basis; this is listed as an evidence gap (Chapter 11). The opportunity is straightforward: a welding test centre, run with an accredited international certification body, could test workshop-trained welders, certify those who pass and train those who do not. During construction, each phase of a steelworks will need hundreds of welders; making certification a contractual requirement, with testing on site, would leave the Kribi cluster with a certified workforce after each peak (Chapter 9).

Electrical and automation technicians present a similar but harder case. A modern EAF draws power through a dedicated furnace transformer fed at high voltage, and the rolling mill runs on variable-speed drives controlled by PLCs. Working on such systems requires formal electrical authorisations, issued by the employer under a written procedure, and familiarity with specific control platforms that vendors teach on their own equipment. Cameroonian IUT graduates in electrical engineering and industrial computing (GEII) have the theoretical base [S21]; what they lack is supervised practice on industrial equipment, which can only be gained in a plant, at a vendor’s facility or on industrial-grade training benches.

Metallurgy and quality control carry a regulatory dimension. Reinforcing bar sold in Cameroon must conform to the mandatory national standard NC 236/2024/06; in January 2026 the government refused an industry request to revise it [S67][S68]. Each heat and each batch has to be analysed and tested, and the results certified. Laboratory analysts and quality inspectors therefore need training in standard test methods and in a documented quality system, which a laboratory can later have accredited.

4.4 Supervision is the slowest skill to build

The most underestimated gap is supervisory. A steelworks runs 24 hours a day in rotating shifts. At three in the morning, a shift supervisor in the melt shop decides whether a furnace with a suspected water leak keeps melting, whether a ladle with a worn lining is used once more, and whether a crew that has been short-handed for two shifts continues. Those decisions combine technical judgement, safety leadership and authority over experienced workers. They cannot be taught in a classroom, and they are the decisions most often at the root of serious accidents in heavy industry (Chapter 8).

Supervisors are grown, not hired. The career ladders in Figure 4.2 show the typical path: an operator becomes a senior operator after three to six years, a shift supervisor after six to ten, and a production manager after more than ten. Maintenance and engineering ladders are similar. A new works in a country with no steelmaking base must therefore accept that its first supervisors will be expatriates or experienced Cameroonians recruited from other heavy industries (cement, aluminium, power, oil and gas), and must name and develop their Cameroonian successors from the first day.

Source: Cameroon Steel analysis of typical career progression in EAF long-products works; diplomas as awarded by Cameroonian institutions [S18][S21][S24].

The ladders also show where lateral moves are possible: a senior operator with an aptitude for equipment can move into maintenance, and a senior technician can move into engineering with further study. Making those bridges explicit, and financing the study that some of them require, is one of the most effective retention tools available to an employer in a tight labour market.

4.5 Employers train less than they did, which makes the gap self-perpetuating

Skills gaps persist where employers do not train. The World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys show that the share of Cameroonian firms offering formal training to their permanent full-time employees fell from 37.6% in 2016 to 24.0% in 2024, below the latest Sub-Saharan African average of 27.8% (Figure 4.3) [S15]. Formal firms that do not train cannot supply experienced workers to newcomers; newcomers who cannot recruit experienced workers must train from scratch; and firms that train risk losing their trainees to those that do not. This is the classic case for a shared, sector-level training effort financed by all employers who benefit (Chapter 10).

Source: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys, indicator "Firms offering formal training (% of firms)", via the World Development Indicators API, updated 8 October 2026 [S15].

4.6 Language, numeracy and digital skills underpin everything else

Three foundation skills cut across every role in the matrix and deserve explicit attention in any training plan.

Language. Cameroon has two official languages, and Law No. 2018/010 commits the State to equal access to vocational training in both [S26]. Most technical secondary schools and vocational centres teach in French, while much equipment documentation, control-system software and vendor training is produced in English. A steelworks recruiting nationally will employ francophone and anglophone Cameroonians side by side, and will receive manuals, alarms and training material in at least one language that part of its workforce does not read fluently. Procedures, safety signs and permits should therefore be bilingual, and technical English for operators and technicians should be part of the training programme, not an assumption.

Numeracy and process thinking. Running a furnace or a caster means reading trends, interpreting set points and tolerances, and understanding cause and effect in a continuous process. These skills vary widely among holders of the same diploma, which is why aptitude testing at selection and a foundation module at the start of training are recommended (Chapter 3).

Digital skills. Modern melt shops and rolling mills are run from control rooms through process-automation systems, and maintenance is planned in computerised systems. Operators and technicians need to be comfortable with screens, data and simple software before they learn plant-specific systems. Simulators, discussed in Chapter 5, train these skills and the process at the same time.

Cameroon has a full set of national diplomas, from the CAP and the technical baccalaureate to the BTS, the DUT and the engineering degree, and Law No. 2018/010 adds the validation of acquired experience as a right [S26]. What it lacks for heavy industry is a set of competence standards that describe what a melter, a caster, a roll changer or an electrical authorisation holder must be able to do, and a certification process that tests it. Without them, three problems arise:

• Employers cannot trust informal competence. A welder or mechanic trained in a workshop may be excellent, but without a certificate the employer must test every candidate itself.
• Workers cannot carry their competence. A melter trained by one employer has no document that another employer, or a training centre, will recognise.
• Schools cannot align curricula. Without occupational standards co-written with industry, training centres teach to their own syllabus.

The answer is not to create new diplomas, but to build an employer-led layer of competence standards and assessments on top of the national ones: international certificates where they exist (ISO 9606-1 for welders [S59], ISO 45001-based management for HSE [S58]), vendor certificates for equipment, and employer competence cards for process roles, all mapped to the national diplomas so that a worker’s progress is recorded and portable. Chapter 10 proposes that MINEFOP and the employers of the Kribi cluster develop these standards together and recognise them nationally.