Our first STRIPES newsletter (June 2025) is live, capturing how Technical and Vocational Education and Training (T-VET) is becoming a practical, dignified route to work for young people in Lebanon. The opening preface sets the tone: in times of deep national hardship, education is a catalyst for hope and recovery—and T-VET is emerging as an essential pillar of resilience.

Inside, we introduce the STRIPES project—an Erasmus+ initiative launched in December 2023 and coordinated by VU Amsterdam with partners in Lebanon and Slovenia—and explain how the new STRIPES Centres bridge students, providers, and employers via on-site hubs and a digital platform that supports internships, job matching, and skills development.

Readers will find short Q&As with Lebanese T-VET actors from CIS College and INMAA, alongside perspectives from European partners CIS-VU and IRI UL on how collaboration with Lebanon enriches higher education through hands-on, market-relevant learning.

A data-driven feature, “Changing Times for TVET in Lebanon,” highlights a shift already underway: IRADA’s job placements for T-VET graduates have tripled from 15 in 2021 to 45 in 2024, while enrollment is climbing across leading institutions. Together, these trends point to rising recognition of vocational pathways by both students and employers.

The newsletter also shares two success stories that put faces to the numbers. Mahassen, an INMAA healthcare assistant graduate, is now employed in Bekaa and preparing to train as a registered nurse, while Aya, a CIS beauty graduate, has taken her skills abroad to a job in Saudi Arabia—real training translating into real opportunities at home and across borders.

Amid ongoing displacement, our “Education Amid Crisis” section describes how CIS College has opened its doors to internally displaced people, supported emergency responses, and begun mobilizing education funds so affected learners can continue their studies and access T-VET opportunities.

Finally, a concise timeline recaps key milestones—from the February 2024 kickoff and a June 2024 consortium meeting in Amsterdam to the January 2025 opening of the first STRIPES Centre, the Leadership Development Workshop in February 2025, and the publication of this inaugural newsletter.

Our first newsletter is available here: https://www.stripes-project.com/wp-content/uploads/STRIPES-1st-Newsletter-final.pdf