Lebanon - Nonformal Education

The new educational system, with regard to nonformal education, established a field of professional studies following the warrants of the job market, notably for the students who finished their first educational cycle and wish to acquire an immediate profession. In the centers of professional modular formation, the student receives a professional formation at three stages and in a way that the initial formation is conducted inside of the modules of autonomous learning, which give the student possibilities to pass vertically (that is, from one determined module of learning to a higher one) or horizontally to another profession at the same level inside of the same series of professions.

After passing every module of learning, trainees receive an official work certificate permitting them to practice the profession for which they were trained so that they may have the possibility to pursue their formation further according to the specific module of learning following the Lebanese ladder of adopted qualifications. In every module of formation, trainees receive between 600 to 900 hours of formation (25 percent theoretical and 75 percent practical work). That ladder of information is an echelon of qualifications starting with a novice worker, who knows about 10 percent but knows how to do things about 90 percent, and who can be granted a degree of formation attestation. Second, there is a qualified worker, who knows about 25 percent but knows how to do things about 75 percent, and who can be granted a formation attestation degree like the novice worker. Third, there is a specialist worker, who knows about 40 percent but knows how to do things about 60 percent, and who can be granted a C.P.A. degree. Fourth, there is a technician, who knows 50 percent and also knows how to do things 50 percent, who can be granted a technical or professional baccalaureate degree. Fifth, there is a superior technician, who knows 60 percent and knows how to do things about 40 percent, and who can be granted a technical or professional qualification degree. Sixth, there is the specialist or expert, who knows 70 percent and knows how to do things about 30 percent, and who can be granted a technical license degree.

In terms of the third module of learning, trainees may obtain the C.P.A., which permits them to work at establishments of production, construction, and in the service sector under the title of special workers. They can, if they wish, pursue their formation at the superior formal or nonformal technical level following the proper procedures of the establishment where they have been working and in coordination with the official direction of those who are concerned.

Students who abandon the basic education field or any other field of study can follow available courses in this area of modular learning. These courses are equally open to adults who wish to profit from these programs in order to move to another profession or for promotion purposes in the same professional domain. These programs open very diverse horizons in front of every individual and prepare for the practice of professions needed in the work market. Programs offered by vocational institutions are diverse and vary from one institution to another in terms of courses and training, depending on whether the institution is public or private. These programs include: home economics, secretarial training, needlework, pottery, masonry, and farming.

As to the conditions of admissions into the diverse modules of learning, they are linked to the demands of every specialty and they become precisely regulated when necessary by the Ministry of Technical and Professional Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor and through the National Agency for Employment. The General Directorate of Technical and Professional Education is responsible for the concepts and organization of the stages related to all the modules of learning.