embassy highlights

1,250 Students Benefit from Enhanced Vocational Training Facilities under USAID-Funded Program

December 10, 2007

With USAID funding under the tourism portfolio, assistance is being provided to promote the human resources in the tourism, catering and hospitality sectors in Lebanon. Within the context of this program, USAID is extending assistance to Al-Kafaat Foundation, a leading vocational training institution in Lebanon, through the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA). The program recently completed the finishing of the institution’s on-campus training restaurant – which serves as an on-the-job training facility for students – as well as provided one hundred computers for its graphic design computer laboratory. Furthermore, the program established an office for placement services on campus to help students find gainful employment upon their graduation. Since its inception in January, the office has helped forty-two students find employment. Also, owners of rural cottage inns – who are beneficiaries under a parallel objective in this program – are benefiting from hands-on training at the institutions’ premises. Al-Kafaat graphic design students have been recruited to design the websites and outreach materials for these beneficiaries in order to improve the marketing of their rural establishments.

This initiative falls under the USAID-funded Developing Hospitality Industry’s Abilities - Fostering Economic Expansion (DHIAFEE) program implemented by the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) at a level of $1.7 million over two years. The program aims to improve the quality of cottage inns in rural areas throughout Lebanon, as well as increase the number and quality of qualified persons engaged in the tourism workforce.