Two years exactly from today, a new idea was conceived, an idea that will change hundreds of lives, an idea to be known as the Employment and Entrepreneurship Bureau (EEB) that serves LOST’s continuous quest of empowering the local community.
The Bureau, that was supported throughout inauguration by UNICEF, acts as a pivotal point of all competency-based and vocational trainings done by LOST. The Bureau links trained skills to the market needs and conducts a continuously updated mapping of jobs/professions needed in the labor market in the area and in coordination with local businesses and economical power houses to assess job opportunities for Lebanese and non-Lebanese youth (in jobs they are allowed to perform). The EEB organizes job fairs, major fairs, product fairs, and other forms of employer to applicant activities. The Bureau also helps youth develop professional and Life Skills CV’s, scout for internship,on-the-job training, apprenticeship, and employment opportunities.
The EEB employs a processing, profiling, and monitoring system through the utilization of a constructed database system related to each individual. The database is updated on a regular basis through feedback progress reports from LOST’s field officers. This database directly links applicants to the scouted job opportunities resulting from the market assessment.
Over the course of the past year alone, the EEB has registered the following successes:
- 640 youth have been placed in internship, on-the-job training, or apprentice ship opportunities.
- 212 youth have been placed in employment opportunities.
- Over 3000 youth attended career related fairs.
- Over 60 large and medium scale private sector institutions are partnering the EEB in youth employment support.
- 82 villages and communities have been through economical mapping and forms of market studies.
The numbers truly speak volumes of the achievements of the EEB,however, they fail short at describing the life-changing impact this Bureau is having on hundreds of youth. The Bureau that grows in stature by day, is becoming more and more capacitated to empower youth and carry the community forward.
