Lebanon

LOCAL SKILLS MATTER Lebanon

A study of good practice in the application of territorial governance tools to VET in Lebanon, undertaken as part of the Entrepreneurial Communities initiative.

Short description:

In 2013, as part of its work on multilevel VET governance, the ETF launched its Entrepreneurial Communities initiative to identify and acknowledge local partnerships that foster skills, entrepreneurship and job creation. The goal was to explore and learn from examples in partner countries, in order to understand how these partnerships are formed, the impact they can have on communities and how they can inform VET policy.

The unemployment rate in Lebanon is over 40% and people under the age of 25 are four times more likely to be unemployed than those in other age groups. This report describes an entrepreneurial community designed to help tackle this problem. It brings together schools and private sector entities in Beirut through a collective effort led by INJAZ Lebanon. The programme involves students from the ages of 12 to 24, and its focus on entrepreneurial skills helps to create jobs through supporting new businesses and by promoting wider employability. So far, between 8 000 and 9 000 students have participated in the INJAZ Lebanon Company Programme since it was set up in 2001.

From its inception, INJAZ has been connecting local businesses to local secondary schools through their entrepreneurial learning programmes. The entrepreneurial community includes five schools and major businesses such as Citibank, Technica SAL and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, as well as the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. In 2004 INJAZ signed a key agreement with the Ministry that allows it to extend its operations to public schools. The initiative does not receive direct government funding but relies on donations from private-sector organisations and in-kind contributions, whereby employees of larger companies are given time off to mentor young people on the programmes and bring the business world into the classroom.

You may read the document below and see the video here.