Learning business
Lebanon leads the way in engaging
students with business skills
In recent years several business incubators have been established to support young entrepreneurs in Lebanon. There are numerous benefits apart from private wealth creation such as putting the brakes on a brain drain, as tens of thousands of young people have left the country to seek opportunities abroad. Despite these levels of migration, unemployment remains high. According to the World Bank, the number of jobless in Lebanon is set to double this year to 20 per cent, with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the region.
Injaz Lebanon brings schools
and businesses together to enable
young people to succeed when they leave school
INJAZ Lebanon work is based on three pillars – work readiness, entrepreneurialism, and financial literacy. It brings schools and businesses together to enable young people to succeed when they leave school, whether they go on to create their own business or join an existing organization as an employee. The companies that sit on INJAZ Lebanon’s governing board provide financial support by sponsoring events, projects, or specific schools. Additional funding comes from development agencies, but INJAZ Lebanon has not, so far, had direct government funding. The private sector is therefore the key strategic partner. In addition to funding projects, companies allow employees time off to mentor the young people on the programmes, and generally bring the business world into the classroom.
As Development Adviser for INJAZ Lebanon, Fayza Saad Mehanna speaks passionately about the contribution that INJAZ can make. “Lebanon has a very youthful population with over 40 per cent below 24 years old, and we also have a high level of unemployment. The INJAZ programme is designed to help tackle this. The focus on entrepreneurial skills helps to create jobs through supporting new businesses and by promoting wider employability.”
Leila Kabalan was seventeen when she first got involved with the INJAZ Lebanon Company Programme. “I remember they came to our high school and told us ‘we have this programme, where you can start your own company, you can do whatever you want. You are given some shares and you have to sell them. You’ll be given a mentor from the private sector to help you, but you do all the work.’ To have someone come into the school, which was very structured, very focused on academia, and tell us ‘you have the freedom to do whatever you want’ was very exciting for us.”
…the experience “really shaped who we are.”
Soon Kabalan and her group of friends were staying on after school to finish their project work, setting themselves deadlines, and developing ideas for their nascent business. They presented their idea at a national competition where they won best company of the year. Such was the impact that Kabalan says the experience “really shaped who we are”.
Between 8,000 and 9,000 students have participated in the INJAZ Lebanon Company Programme since it was set up in 2001. There are several strands in the programme, and students from the ages of 12 to 24 take part.
Many of the students who excel
at the Company Programme
are not necessarily high achievers in class
Rabih Murr, head of the upper school division at Al Ahliah School in downtown Beirut, has worked with INJAZ Lebanon for seven years. He sees a lot of common objectives, particularly in taking the learning experience out of the classroom and bringing it closer to the demands of work. “What we have noticed is that many of the students who excel at the INJAZ Company Programme are not necessarily high achievers in class. Maybe they are not good at studying from a book and taking a written exam, but when it comes to people skills and negotiation skills, to getting a good offer, to convincing the media to have them on a show to talk about their products, they are skilled in those areas.”
This entrepreneurial community brings together schools and the private sector in Beirut through a collective effort led by Injaz Lebanon, a non-governmental organisation. The partnership runs entrepreneurial learning programmes where students are introduced to the business world and experience a real-life situation of creating a company with guidance from a corporate volunteer from the local private sector. The partnership has been active since 2001.
Learn more about Beirut entrepreneurial community (FR) and the ETF project.
