Social care worker student handbook

Welcome

You are opening this handbook because you have chosen a profession that matters. By joining the Training Centre for Care Workers, you enter a house born, twenty years ago, of a simple and demanding conviction: in Cameroon, caring for an elderly, sick or vulnerable person could not remain a loving improvisation; it had to become a real profession, with its knowledge, its gestures and its ethics.

This handbook is your first companion. It introduces the association and the woman whose name your class now bears, the founder; it describes your training pathway, your placements, life at the centre and the rules that protect it; it gathers your contacts, your rights and your duties, and the services you can now use online, at any hour. Read it without haste, then keep it within reach: it answers most of the questions you will have this year.

The Management of the Training Centre for Care Workers (CFOA)

and the Executive Board of the “Les 3A” Association

Part I · The spirit of the houseThe founder

This centre carries a memory, and that memory has a name.

1. Mrs Enguéléguélé Bobé Sara Murielle

Mrs Enguéléguélé Bobé Sara Murielle (1940–2024), a State-registered paediatric nurse, founded the Assistance and Accompaniment “Les 3A” Association on 19 October 2005, in Yaoundé. She chaired it without interruption until she passed away, on 1 July 2024. What you learn here continues her work.

The association's first board, certified on 10 November 2005, gathered around her eight women: a social-affairs inspector, a paediatrician, a pharmacist, a midwife, two social workers and a businesswoman. This composition says everything about the project: an association founded by professionals of care and social action, who knew precisely what they wanted to teach. The childcare specialisation the centre still offers today is the direct legacy of its founder's own career.

Our vision and our principles

2. From commitment to institution

An association that rests on the strength of one person alone dies with her. The 2026–2031 modernisation plan, launched after the founder's passing, pursues a single aim: to make her work independent of the people who carry it, and therefore lasting. This means stronger governance, an economic model that funds its own solidarity, and a digital platform that brings training and follow-up within reach of the greatest number.

The association's purpose, for its part, holds in one sentence unchanged since 2005: to help bring a sense of well-being to elderly and/or sick people and their families. That sentence still describes exactly what our teams do — and what you will learn to do.

Our four principles

They are not slogans: they frame the way you are trained, the way you are assessed and the way you will practise.

These principles unfold across five lines of action that structure all of the association's work today: to train social care workers; to support dependent older adults and vulnerable people; to innovate through digital tools in training and follow-up; to pass on and preserve the founder's legacy; and to develop care and accommodation facilities for older adults.

The social care worker's profession

3. A people-facing profession, demanding and sought-after

The social care worker (AVS) supports, day to day, people who can no longer carry out the essential acts of life on their own — an older person losing autonomy, someone ill or living with a disability, a very young child. They work at home and in care facilities, under the responsibility of a team, and act as the link between the person, their family and health and social-care professionals.

It is a profession of precise gestures — helping with washing, dressing, eating and moving about, without risk to the person or to oneself — but it is first of all a profession of relationship. You do not succeed by technique alone: you succeed through a disposition to care. Technique can be learned; that is why, at entry, we look less for a high level of schooling than for a genuine aptitude for the caring relationship.

What a care worker does — and does not do

The social care worker helps with essential acts, observes and reports, provides stimulation and breaks isolation, supports the family caregiver and raises the alarm in any abnormal situation. They are neither a doctor nor a nurse: they make no diagnosis and perform no medical act. Knowing the limits of one's role is part of the skill — and of the safety of the person cared for.

Part II · Your training at the CFOAThe training pathway

4. Twelve to fourteen months, from core to diploma

Since 2012, the Training Centre for Care Workers (CFOA) has trained several cohorts of social care workers. Initial training runs over twelve to fourteen months. It is built according to the frameworks approved by the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training (MINEFOP) and is organised in three stages: theoretical training at the centre — the common core, then the specialisation —, practical field placements in partner institutions, and a study trip for discovery and socio-professional immersion within a company.

The programme at a glance

Capacity is 15 to 30 learners per year. Diligence is the rule: regular attendance at lessons and full-time presence during placements are conditions for sitting the examinations.

The six areas of the common core

The two specialisations

5. One core, two very different groups of people

Caring for an infant and caring for a person at the end of life call for the same human qualities but distinct technical skills. That is why the programme branches after the common core. You choose one of the two tracks; later, you may round out your profile with the modules of the other through continuing education.

AVS Gerontology and end-of-life care

The specialisation that responds directly to the ageing of the Cameroonian population. It prepares you to work with older people, at home and in geriatric services, including in situations of heavy dependency and end-of-life care.

• Help with essential acts: washing, dressing, feeding, mobility, elimination.
• Safe handling and transfers, without risk to the person or to the professional.
• Prevention and early detection of falls, pressure sores and undernutrition.
• Observation of cognitive disorders and adaptation of communication.
• Relational support, stimulation and combating isolation.
• Support for the family caregiver and reporting of observations.
• Palliative approach, respect for the person's wishes and support through bereavement.

Placement settings: geriatric services, care facilities, home support for dependent older people, under supervision.

AVS Childcare

The association's historic specialisation, inherited from its founder's career as a paediatric nurse. It prepares you to care for young children in nurseries, in mother-and-child health centres, in maternity units and in families' homes.

• Daily care of the infant and young child, hygiene and safety.
• Feeding, breastfeeding support and the introduction of solid foods.
• Spotting warning signs and knowing how to respond.
• Stimulation, play and support for psychomotor development.
• The relationship with parents, reporting and professional bearing.
• Prevention of domestic accidents.

Placement settings: nurseries, mother-and-child health centres, maternity units, supervised home childcare.

Modules and continuing education

6. A profession that never stops learning

An older person's needs change, and so do professional recommendations. The 3A's continuing education lets a care worker already in post, a team or a caring family make progress without leaving their activity. It rests on short modules — of one to three days, which can be banked — that add up to make a pathway recognised by the association.

Every care worker placed by the association follows at least sixteen hours of further training per year, included in their professional support. The materials are designed for an entry-level phone and can be consulted offline; they sync as soon as a connection is available.

Further training for qualified care workers

Other pathways are aimed at family caregivers (essential gestures, preventing burnout), at facilities and employers (tailored training, a respectful-care approach) and at trainers and mentors. The full catalogue is presented on the association's website.

Learning in person and online

7. The centre in your pocket

Your training is lived first at the centre, in Mimboman: that is where gestures are passed on, where practical scenarios take place and where the spirit of the class is born. But the CFOA also gives you, as a complement, a digital space designed for Cameroonian realities — a modest phone, a connection that is sometimes intermittent.

• Materials accessible offline. Content can be consulted without a network and syncs as soon as a connection is available: you never lose your progress.
• Training that adapts. The digital materials follow each person's pace and reinforce the points to consolidate before the examinations.
• Your online training area to follow your lessons, your attendance and your placements (see section 17, “Doing everything online, with AI”).
• An artificial-intelligence documentary assistant, available at any hour, to answer your questions while citing its sources.

Placements

8. Placements to put into practice what you have learned

The placement is not an end-of-course formality: it is the moment when your knowledge becomes know-how. In the field, in partner institutions — including various hospital facilities — and in the homes of people cared for, you practise under supervision — a professional observes you, corrects you and passes on the profession as it is really lived.

Your bearings during the placement

• An agreement frames every placement: it sets the location, the dates, the supervisor and the objectives. No placement begins without it.
• Full-time presence and diligence are the rule. Any absence must be reported without delay to the centre and to the placement setting.
• Confidentiality is absolute. In your intervention records, a person cared for is never designated by their full name, but by the reference assigned by the centre.
• Professional bearing — punctuality, dress, discretion, respect for the supervisor's instructions — is assessed on the same footing as technical gestures.
• Your records and placement logbook can, if you wish, be kept in your online training area, consultable offline and synced afterwards.

The study trip

The programme also includes a study trip for discovery and socio-professional immersion within a company. Its dates, location and arrangements are communicated to you by the centre.

Assessment and certification

9. How you are assessed, and what you obtain

Your progress is measured throughout the year, not by a single final examination. The common core is assessed through continuous assessment and end-of-cycle examinations; the specialisation and the placements are assessed in their own right, combining technical gestures, professional bearing and the quality of written and oral reporting.

What you obtain at the end of the pathway

The centre operates under the approval of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training. At the end of the training, you sit the vocational qualification certificate (CQP) examinations of MINEFOP; the centre adds to this a “Les 3A” attestation certifying your pathway and your specialisation.

The “social care worker” stream appears in the ministry's examination records. Since 2024, the association has been carrying out the steps to have both of its specialisations fully registered there; the secretariat informs you of the exact state of this framework at the time of your enrolment and your examinations.

Part III · Joining the CFOAAdmission and enrolment

10. How to join the training

Admission is by application, then interview. We look less for a high level of schooling than for a genuine aptitude for the caring relationship: technique can be learned, the disposition to care is what we verify. A level allowing you to read, write and report in writing remains necessary, because reporting observations is part of the profession.

The four steps

1. Collect and submit the application file. The application file is collected from the centre's secretariat, in Mimboman, or requested by email ([email protected]). It is submitted complete before the closing date for enrolment.
2. Assemble the documents. A handwritten letter addressed to the centre's management, a birth certificate, a copy of your latest diploma or school certificate, a medical certificate of fitness, identity photographs, and the application fee.
3. Attend the motivation interview. A conversation of about twenty minutes with the teaching team: your background, your motivation, your view of the profession, your availability for placements.
4. Confirm and prepare for the start of term. Admission is notified in writing. Enrolment is validated by payment of the tuition fees, which may be paid in instalments, before the opening lesson.

Tuition fees and payment options

11. What the training costs, and how to spread it

The tuition fees proposed in the modernisation plan amount to 500,000 FCFA per year and per stream. The amount applicable to the current intake is confirmed by the secretariat when you collect the application file: always check it at that point.

The options available

• Payment in instalments, in monthly amounts.
• Payment by mobile money: Orange Money, MTN MoMo, Express Union.
• Partial coverage by an employer or an institutional partner.
• Support schemes under negotiation with technical and financial partners (see section 12).

An application fee is charged at the time of application; it is separate from the tuition fees and is non-refundable. Every payment gives rise to a numbered receipt, which you can verify online (section 9).

Funding your studies: grants and support

12. Public schemes to know about

Several public schemes support vocational training and youth employment in Cameroon. Their conditions, amounts and campaigns change from one year to the next: this table tells you where to look, not an acquired right. Always check eligibility and dates with the body concerned and with the centre's secretariat.

Where to look for funding (to check each year)

Part IV · Life at the centreLife at the centre, attendance and discipline

13. Rules that protect the training and the people

Life at the centre is governed by the association's Internal Regulations and by the CFOA Student Code, which are given and presented to you at the start of term. These texts are not there to constrain: they protect the quality of your training, the safety of the people you will care for and the respect owed to everyone at the centre.

What is expected of you day to day

• Diligence and punctuality: regular attendance at lessons and full-time presence on placement are conditions for sitting the examinations. Any absence must be justified without delay.
• Respect for people: trainers, staff, fellow students and, even more, the people cared for. No form of violence, harassment or discrimination is tolerated.
• Dress and hygiene suited to practical lessons and placement settings.
• Care of the teaching equipment and premises, which are a common good.
• Confidentiality: what you learn about a person cared for is not told, neither at the centre, nor outside, nor on social media.

If a fault is committed

Breaches, when they constitute faults, fall under the association's disciplinary system. The Internal Regulations set out the scale of sanctions — from a warning to exclusion — and the procedure. This procedure guarantees your rights: you are informed of the facts alleged against you and you are heard before any decision. Depending on the seriousness, the Executive Board, and the disciplinary council when it convenes, take cognisance of the matter.

The care worker student's code of ethics

14. Ten commitments I make

The profession of social care worker rests on a trust: that of a person who lets you into their private world at the moment when they are most fragile. This code, inspired by the founder's code of ethics, sums up the commitments you make on entering training and will carry throughout your practice.

1. I respect the dignity of every person — their body, their privacy, their habits, their beliefs — in all circumstances.

2. I place respect for the person before the efficiency of the gesture: I take the time it needs, I forewarn, I explain, I obtain consent.

3. I keep confidential everything I see, hear and learn. I never speak of a person cared for, neither outside nor on social media.

4. I protect people's data: in my writing, I designate them by the centre's reference, never by their full name.

5. I know the limits of my role: I make no diagnosis, I perform no medical act, and I hand over to the competent professionals.

6. I observe and report faithfully, in writing and orally, what is useful to the continuity of care.

7. I raise the alarm without delay in any abnormal or dangerous situation. To report is to protect — never to betray.

8. I practise no discrimination — of age, sex, origin, religion or condition — and I refuse every form of mistreatment, including the ordinary kind.

9. I am diligent, punctual and loyal towards the centre, my supervisors, my fellow students and the people I care for.

10. I keep learning: I keep my gestures up to date and I welcome feedback as help, not as reproach.

Read and approved — Full name: …………………………………………… Date: ……… / ……… / ………… Signature: ……………………

Safety, health and emergencies

15. Protecting yourself, protecting others

Caring for others requires knowing how to protect yourself. At the centre as on placement, always apply the rules learned: hand hygiene, standard precautions against infection, handling gestures that spare your back and the person, care with products and equipment. In the event of an accident, a health episode or an incident, tell a trainer, a supervisor or the secretariat immediately.

Always keep the emergency numbers on you. In Cameroon, they are called free of charge, including from a phone with no credit. The sheet below is made to be cut out and kept in your wallet or your placement bag.

✂ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - cut out

Part V · Succeeding and staying connectedAfter graduation

16. Training does not stop at employment — it leads to it

Training alone is not enough: the association also supports entry into employment. Its placement service negotiates contracts, guarantees pay of 125,000 to 200,000 FCFA a month, well above the minimum wage, and provides regular supervision of the placed professional. You are not left alone on the day you graduate.

Where you will be able to work

Families at home; care facilities for older people; nurseries and mother-and-child health centres; hospital services; associations and non-governmental organisations in the social field.

Your career, step by step

Each step is tied to a level of pay and to responsibilities

Continuing education (section 6) lets you climb these steps and add, if you wish, the second specialisation to your profile.

Doing everything online, with AI

17. The CFOA online, at any hour

The centre was designed for Cameroonian realities: a modest phone, a connection that is sometimes intermittent, long journeys. That is why a large part of your steps and of your studies can be done online, and why an artificial-intelligence assistant answers you when the secretariat is closed. It all starts from a single address: www.association-3a.org.

The documentary assistant — your questions, at any hour

Ask your question in French or English: the assistant answers in your language, drawing on the association's public documents and public statistics on personal care (INSEE, DREES, World Bank, WHO, ILO), while citing its sources. No personal data is required or kept. As the answers are generated automatically, check the important points against the sources cited or with the association. → www.association-3a.org/assistant

Your training area — following your studies

Once admitted, the CFOA secretariat creates a personal account for you. At first login, you read the notice about your data, then you choose your own passphrase. Your area lets you follow your lessons (consultable offline), your attendance, your placements and your intervention records. → www.association-3a.org/espace (account: [email protected]).

Getting information, enrolling, paying, verifying

• Request your application file and ask your questions through the contact form or by email ([email protected]).
• Pay your fees by mobile money: Orange Money, MTN MoMo, Express Union.
• Verify an attestation or a receipt at www.association-3a.org/verifier.

Frequently asked questions

18. What we are asked most often

Do I need a diploma to enter the training?

A level of schooling allowing you to read, write and report in writing is necessary, because reporting observations is part of the profession. The latest diploma obtained is requested in the file, but the motivation interview weighs as much as the academic record.

Is the training recognised by the State?

The centre operates under the approval of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, and learners sit the vocational qualification certificate examinations. The “social care worker” stream appears in the examination records; the steps taken since 2024 aim to have both specialisations fully registered there.

Can I work during the training?

Initial training requires regular attendance, and placement periods are full-time. People already in post are directed to continuing education, whose short modules are designed to be followed alongside an activity.

Is the profession reserved for women?

No. It is today very largely practised by women, but nothing in the profession warrants this. Some situations, in particular transfers of heavily dependent people, benefit from mixed teams. Applications from men are encouraged.

What happens after obtaining the certificate?

The graduate joins the pool of the association's placement service. It negotiates the contract with the employer, guarantees a wage floor, provides monthly supervision and offers a replacement in case of absence. Follow-up after training is part of the association's commitment.

Do you offer training for families?

Yes. Short modules for family caregivers appear in the continuing-education catalogue: caring without hurting yourself, preventing falls at home, feeding an older person, understanding cognitive disorders (see section 6).

Contacts, services and appendices

19. Keeping this handbook within reach

Your contacts

The new student's checklist

To assemble your application file, gather:

☐ A handwritten letter addressed to the centre's management

☐ Birth certificate

☐ A copy of your latest diploma or school certificate

☐ Medical certificate of fitness

☐ Identity photographs

☐ Application fee

The documents that complete this handbook

This handbook is a practical guide. It does not replace the reference texts, which prevail in the event of divergence and which are given or presented to you at the start of term: the association's Internal Regulations, the CFOA Student Code, the founder's code of ethics, the placement agreement and the approved training frameworks.

A short glossary of the profession

References and legal basis

The information in this handbook is drawn from the texts and documents below. It is practical and not legal advice: in the event of divergence, the official texts of the association and of the State prevail. The contact details and training data have been validated by the association's Executive Board.

Legislative and regulatory texts

Republic of Cameroon (1990) Loi n° 90/053 du 19 décembre 1990 relative à la liberté d'association [Law on freedom of association]. Yaoundé: Presidency of the Republic.

Republic of Cameroon (2010) Loi n° 2010/012 du 21 décembre 2010 relative à la cybersécurité et à la cybercriminalité au Cameroun [Law on cybersecurity and cybercrime]. Yaoundé.

Republic of Cameroon (2024) Loi n° 2024/017 du 23 décembre 2024 relative à la protection des données à caractère personnel au Cameroun [Law on personal data protection]. Yaoundé.

Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training (2012) Arrêté n° 262/MINEFOP/SG/DFOP/SDGSF/CSACD du 12 décembre 2012 approving the Training Centre for Care Workers (CFOA). Yaoundé.

Association documents

Assistance and Accompaniment “Les 3A” Association (2005) Statutes and Internal Regulations (declaration receipt No. 001077/RDA/J06/BAPP of 2 December 2005). Yaoundé.

“Les 3A” Association (2026) Modernisation strategic plan 2026–2031. Yaoundé.

“Les 3A” Association (2026) Institutional website and online services. Available at: https://www.association-3a.org (accessed 13 September 2026).

Statistical and reference sources

World Health Organization (n.d.) Integrated care for older people (ICOPE framework). Geneva: WHO.

Directorate for Research, Studies, Assessment and Statistics (2014) Everyday Life and Health Survey. Paris: DREES.

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, World Bank and International Labour Organization (n.d.) Public statistics on personal care and ageing.

— “Sara Murielle” Class · 2026–2027 —

“To hold the hand of whoever needs it, at the beginning of life as at its close.”

This text reproduces the student handbook in full. A printable version (PDF) is available from the CFOA secretariat — [email protected].