Initial training
A social care worker programme built on the standards accredited by the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training: twelve months of core teaching, two months of specialisation, two months of supervised placement.
Yaoundé · Cameroon · since 2005
Growing old with care
Growing old with care
is a profession.
Les 3A trains the social care workers Cameroon will need to support its elders — turning a demographic challenge into a qualified, recognised and properly paid occupation.
MINEFOP standards
Two specialisations
WHO ICOPE framework
The driving fact
Cameroon’s older population
People aged 60 and over
0
million in 2025
0
million projected for 2050
A factor of 2.7 within one generation.
Source: UN, World Population Prospects 2024.
0 %
of Cameroonians above retirement age receive a pension
ILO, SDG indicator 1.3.1, 2020
0
people employed in personal care services in France — what the sector becomes once it is organised
Insee, Insee Première no. 1981, 2019
0 %
of households aged 80 and over use a home-help service
Insee, Filosofi 2018 (Hauts-de-France)
0
practising care workers targeted by Les 3A by 2031
3A strategic plan 2026–2031
Why we exist
A need that has grown vast, a response still improvised
In Cameroon, old age has traditionally been the family’s responsibility. That solidarity endures — but it now runs into urbanisation, children living far away, longer lives, and situations of dependency that call for technical skills affection alone cannot supply.
Our founder, a State-registered paediatric nurse, understood this back in 2005: supporting an older person with dignity has to be learned. It is a profession, with its body of knowledge, its protocols and its ethics — and it deserves recognition and a wage.
To help bring a sense of well-being to older and ill people and to their families. Statutory purpose of Les 3A, article 4 of the 2005 constitutionDiscover the story of Les 3A
The professional does not replace the family; they support it. That is precisely the role we train our care workers to occupy.
What we do
Three activities, one continuous chain
Train, place, support. Les 3A works across the whole value chain of elder care, because training that leads nowhere is worthless, and care without training is a hazard.
Home-based support
Assessment of needs, a personalised care plan, a trained care worker on site, regular supervision and support for the family carer.
Continuing education
Short, stackable modules for practising professionals, family carers and institutional teams — available on a phone, even without a connection.
The observatory
Ageing is not a threat. It is a reservoir of jobs.
Wherever a population ages and services get organised, an employment sector appears — skilled, impossible to offshore, rooted in the neighbourhood. Cameroon stands at the start of that curve.
What the comparison shows
In a single French region, demand for home-care workers rises from 27,040 to 32,000 full-time equivalents between 2015 and 2030 — nearly 5,000 additional posts for a population of about six million.
Cameroon will have 3.68 million people aged 60 and over in 2050. Even partial coverage of that need means tens of thousands of jobs to create and to qualify.
Pay scale
Lifting care workers out of precarity
The crux of the problem
Training is not enough. Someone must negotiate the contract.
The assessment made in August 2024 by the training centre was unambiguous: the care workers it had trained were finding work, but at pay that could fall to 40,000 FCFA a month where no contract had been negotiated — below the statutory minimum wage.
Our answer is not to train more people, but to hold the whole chain: a professional placement service, a guaranteed pay scale, supervision included, and a legible career path from beginner to lead trainer.
- Contracts negotiated by the association, not one-to-one arrangements
- A pay floor above the statutory minimum from the first year
- A guaranteed replacement for the employer, monthly supervision for the worker
- Four grades, tied to experience and specialisation
Roadmap
Where we are going, and by when
The 2026–2031 modernisation plan unfolds in three phases, with measurable milestones at each step.
Foundation
Statutory reform, accreditation renewed with two specialisations, the first “Sara Murielle” cohort, data-protection compliance.
Milestone: 60 people supported, 20 care workers in post.
Integration
Professional placement service, continuing-education platform, mobile payment for every client segment, institutional partnerships.
Milestone: 300 clients, 100 care workers, break-even passed.
Scaling up
Expansion to Douala and a rural site, quality assurance, advocacy for statutory recognition of the social care worker profession.
Milestone: 700 clients, 220 care workers, financial self-sufficiency.
A question? Start here.
Whether you are looking for training, support for a relative, or a partnership, our assistant will point you in the right direction in a few exchanges — and the office takes over for anything specific.
- Admission requirements and the training calendar
- Content of the two specialisations and career outcomes
- How home support for an older relative works
- Partnerships, giving, hosting students on placement