UNICEF and AVSI: Vocational Training Program for Youth

InfoPro conducted a study commissioned by AVSI / UNICEF.  AVSI / UNICEF are working with local partners to better the livelihoods of Syrian and host community youth, females, and disabled individuals. The aim is to provide them with life skills and vocational skills that will enable them to develop their abilities, build their knowledge, and improve their living conditions by finding employment opportunities that match their abilities. The program also aims to build the capacity of five vocational centers and to specifically identify the measures to consider in order to adapt the curriculum of the five vocational centers involved in the AVSI program to the needs of the private sector. InfoPro’s mandate was to identify the sub-sectors with the highest capacity for employment and entrepreneurship taking into account the skill set of the project beneficiaries and the need for the inclusion of youth, females, and individuals with disabilities. InfoPro identified the priority sub-sectors by assessing their performance across a set of eight criteria. Once the sectors were identified, InfoPro conducted a total of 450 in-depth interviews with formal and informal businesses – with a micro to small scale of operation. The interviews assessed the problems that businesses are facing with regards to recruitment, the vacancies which they currently have, the most prominent positions that they are having a problem recruiting for, the skills and experience that they require, whether on the job training is conducted or they resort to out sourcing for their training needs among other issues. Interviews were conducted in areas were the program will be implemented; Administrative Beirut, Jbeil, Saida, Tripoli, and Zahle. This allowed InfoPro to identify the sectors with potential employment opportunities for youth, females, and disabled individuals. It also identified the skill set requirements needed to meet the demand of the labor market which eventually assisted InfoPro in recommending the specializations that the vocational centers should adopt.