Lebanese-European cooperation for the employment of marginalized groups

The General Directorate of Technical and Vocational Training signed yesterday a partnership agreement with the European Institute for Cooperation and Development entitled ‘Training and Employment of the More Marginalized Groups’ in an event held at the office of the Directorate in Dekwane, under the patronage of the French Ambassador in Lebanon Emmanuel Bonne. The agreement valued at €5 million aims at creating opportunities for young women and men to enroll in vocational training, while providing technical and material assistance for all vocational and technical training institutes, and at all VT levels, according to Alexi Beigin, the Director General of the European Institute for Cooperation and Development DG DEVCO. For her part, the Regional Director of the French Agency for Development, Marie Elaine Loison, emphasized that this agreement addresses young women and men by providing them with the necessary education in order to build their professional careers. In his turn, the General Director of Technical and Vocational Training, Ahmad Al-Diab, stated that vocational training in Lebanon includes one hundred thousand female and male students, 50% of who are enrolled in governmental vocational training.  Of these, some 35 thousand female and male students in advanced ages are enrolled in vocational and technical training to help them directly access work opportunities. (Al-Mustaqbal, January 25, 2017)