NQF inventory Lebanon

The planned national qualifications framework (NQF) has not yet been adopted by law. So far, Lebanon has only defined levels, 8, and descriptors. In practice, work on the NQF is in abeyance because of the country’s continuing political deadlock and the priority given to handling the presence in the country of many Syrian refugees.

Although the Ministry of Education and Higher Education led an earlier NQF project, the governance structure and the body that would manage the QF has not yet been officially decided.
 

Lebanon has a unique socio-political setting, due to the fragile institutional situation, the growing pressure of the Syrian crisis and the absence of a government following the elections in May 2018. The country´s unique features of a confessionally -based political system and challenging geopolitical environment have made it difficult for governments to implement reforms, which are often blocked or slowed down due to changing priorities and problems in reaching consensus. The spill-over effects of the Syrian conflict represent an increasing threat to Lebanese internal security and impact on all aspects of socio-political and economic life.

Lebanon’s total population has increased by more than 25% in 6 years, from 4.30 million in 2010 to just over 6 million in 2016. [1] The influx of an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees since 2011, in addition to the presence of Palestinian refugees caught in a protracted refugee situation (estimates vary between 174.422 [2] and 469.331 [3]), has strained public finances, infrastructure and service delivery. The Syrian refugees in Lebanon are generally young; approximately 65% of all registered Syrians are under the age of 25.

Lebanon is a middle-income country with an open and largely service-oriented economy that has a strong commercial tradition of domestic free trade and investment policies. The service sector constitutes more than 70 % of the country´s GDP and employs around 70% of the work force. Industry amounts to one quarter of GDP and agriculture 6% (World Bank, world development indicators). SMEs remain the main form of business organisation, particularly micro and small enterprises and there is a large informal sector in the country. Economic growth was high in recent years (up to 8-9% although mostly jobless) but significantly dropped since 2011 and the forecast for the near future is not promising.

An average of 44.2 per cent of the working-age population was estimated to be economically active in 2017 (ILO KILM), with female labour force participation rates just over 21 per cent compared with 66.9 per cent among males aged over 15. The low employment and low activity rates of females can be attributed to social, cultural and economic factors. The unemployment rate was estimated at 6.3 per cent in 2017, with youth (aged 15–24) unemployment estimated at 16.5 per cent. In addition, the country is affected by huge migration flows in terms of a high influx of foreign workers and a large number of skilled Lebanese people seeking employment abroad.

Although Lebanon’s economy is characterised by a proportionately bigger private sector compared to most countries in the region, and a population known for its entrepreneurial spirit (incidence of self-employment [4] amounts to 30% of the total employment), it remains extremely vulnerable to domestic and regional politics and civil unrest.

Lebanon has a relatively low-skilled [5] labour force, though still amongst the most highly-skilled in the region[6]. Almost 20% of adults have attained higher education, the third highest percentage country of the region after Israel and Palestine, while 12% of adults have not followed any education, which is also much lower than the average percentage in the region. Males are slightly more highly skilled than females, although the difference is not as sharp as it is for participation in the labour market.

The education and training system in Lebanon is among the best-performing in the Middle East and North Africa region. Education is traditionally highly valued. In recent years, there has been an increasing socio-political awareness of the importance of education and training for sustainable and cohesive socioeconomic growth. In this context, the Lebanese government - with the support of UNICEF and the ILO - has recently launched the National Strategic Framework for TVET 2018-2022.  This proposed strategy is a key outcome of the Government’s TVET initiative and seeks to widen access and improve the quality of TVET provision.

As stated in the National Strategic Framework for TVET, instead of TVET being perceived as an alternative pathway to productive and decent work, young Lebanese generally associate TVET with academic failure and poor-quality provision. The association of TVET-level jobs with low wages, poor working conditions and lack of career prospects has discouraged youth from enrolling in TVET courses at secondary and post-secondary levels. As a result, just over 26 per cent of students enrolled in secondary education opted for a vocational track in 2015.

The low attractiveness of the VET system could be due to the weak links to the labour market, which exacerbates the difficult transition young people experience from education to the labour market. One in four youth aged 15 to 24 (almost one in three young women) are not in employment, education or training (ILOSTAT, 2007), which, while lower than the average in the region, still represents an important concern.
 

[1]  UNDP, World population prospects, 2016
[2]  According to the government’s Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee census figure covering 12 refugee camps and about 150 informal Palestinian communities released in December 2017

[3]  UNRWA figures

[4]  This indicator measures the share of self-employers as a proportion of total employment. Self-employers includes employers, own-account workers, members of producers’ cooperatives and contributing family workers.

[5]  Educational attainment is frequently used as a proxy measure of the skills associated with a given level of education and available in the population, and to the labour force. Higher levels of educational attainment are associated with several positive individual and social outcomes (see also OECD Education at a Glance, 2015).

[6]  Traditionally Lebanon retains high education standards with a large proportion of private education at all levels.