The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Tripoli and the North, represented by its President, Tawfic Dabusi, launched on Saturday the vocational and technical center, under the auspices of labor minister Mohamad Kabbara. On the occasion, Kabbara hailed the Chamber’s initiative in organizing training courses targeted to boost productive potentials of the youth in preparation for a career across the various agricultural, industrial and trade labor market sectors. Kabbara advised that training should observe the conformity between the actual labor force and the real requirements of the labor market. “This prompts common challenges that necessitate building the capacities and skills of fresh graduates in accordance with labor market demands. The minister also maintained that the lack of educational guidance and orientation based on labor market needs is the main cause of the existing workforce- labor market imbalance. He called for instituting a groundwork for educational policies that promote technical and vocational teaching in order to reduce the flight of young labor force. During the inauguration of the center, the labor ministry and the Chamber signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at partnering in the training and rehabilitation of skilled labor to the end of realizing a balanced labor input/ educational output structure. (Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, May 28, 2017)