As Lebanon’s education sector struggles to recover from war during which 75 TVET schools turned into shelter and more than half of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students’ learning was impacted, and 436 general education and TVET institutions damaged, career guidance is taking on added importance for the in supporting the country’s recovery.

A ‘Peer Learning Activity on Career Guidance’ event organised by the ETF in Turin, Italy, for members of Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Directorate General of Vocational and Technical Education (DGVTE), the Ministry of Labour, the Chamber of Commerce of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, and UNICEF, enabled participants to engage with the latest approaches to career guidance and the school-to-work transition, as well as to visit TVET schools.

The event came at an opportune time as Lebanon is finalising its TVET National Strategic Framework (2027-20231) and is updating its national curriculum for the first time in 30 years. Cooperation is also to be heightened with the private sector to provide vocational education in line with market needs and thereafter employment opportunities.
“In Turin we saw how Italy pragmatically coordinates between all those involved in career guidance, and how it is not just related to the Ministry of Education but also involves industries and the private sector, which for us is something new. We don’t yet have such a system, which is needed to complete the whole puzzle, to improve coordination,” says Dr Hilda Khoury, Director of the General Directorate of Education – Counselling and Guidance Directorate at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education – UNESCO, in Beirut.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) has been working with the ETF on career guidance provision at the secondary education level, with a pilot system underway at 20 schools, later to expand to 50 institutions before being rolled out to the country’s 1,200 public schools and 1,600 private schools as the new curriculum goes into force in the coming years.