Education, support to the employment, empowerment: VEEP progect (Vocational Education & Employment Program) is coming to an end, and its time to draw conclusions. Project team did it yesterday in Beirut, presenting the outcomes reached in these 15 months, that saw us alongside local institutions, organizations and industries, to strengthen perspectives and opportunities for refugees and host communities, for the access to labor market in Lebanon, through the matching between supply and demand of specialized work.
What we did, in a nutshell
Professional training and opportunities of paid apprenticeships for 204 Lebaneses and Syrians, men and women, in the historical quarter and crossroad of cultures of Al-Naba’a (Beirut). In this area, as well as all around Lebanon, there’s an high unemployment rate, with poor access to socio-economic opportunities: a situation mainly due to the low efficiency of the education system and exacerbated by the recent influx of refugees.
Participants to our professional training and apprenticeships at local businesses told their story in the video “From Vulnerability to Resilience: Stories from Al Naba’a” (here the video), launched today during the final event of the project, at the presence of our local and international stakeholders and partners Makhzoumi Foundation, MEMO Sarl, National Employment Office (NEO), Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI), Municipality of Bourj Hammoud.
Skills Gap Analysis of El-Metn industrial sector: By cooperating with these stakeholders on the territory (Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, the National Employment Office and the Association of Lebanon , we conducted an analysis of the industrial market in the Mount Lebanon region – project pilot area – to obtain a picture of the economic situation and highlight the actual skills gaps.
The Skills Gap Analysis is available for download here
The Mobile App: The results of this study converged in the development of a data management system (DMS), which will be used to better support the Lebanese market and its actors. In other words, the DMS will be the database of a mobile job matching application, aiming at bridging job seekers and entrepreneurs of the Mount Lebanon Governorate.
VEEP was part of the AID10805 initiative funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). The AID10805 initiative has been organised in the framework of the humanitarian response to the ongoing Syrian crisis, targeting hosting communities and Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.
Luca Giacani, COSV PM for VEEP, declared: “I am very satisfied with the outputs generated by the project. In first instance we helped a local community to move towards a model of economic development which keeps into consideration all vulnerable groups: Syrian citizens running away from economic, political and social upheaval; and Lebanese from hosting communities, who all of a sudden have to face a dramatic demographic change, if we just consider that Syrian refugees represents today one quarter of total Lebanese population.
In second instance, we equipped local and international stakeholders operating in the Lebanese labor market with two significant tools: a Skills Gap Analysis of the local Labor market; and a mobile app aimed at job seekers and employers. Both tools will hopefully assist in improving the efficiency and efficacy of the Lebanese Labor market.”