Grantee Progress Report: Workforce Development Support in Home Based Healthcare Services

The project provides scholarship, training, and internship opportunities to job seekers, while enhancing the curricula, educational training, and job placement infrastructure and services of private technical and vocational education and training (TVET) partners. The project's objective is to provide technical assistance to support the CSP in designing and implementing Home Based Healthcare Services activities in curriculum development and integration, teacher assessment and training, TVET technical and administrative capacity assessment, and enabling environment issues around training and employment. This project will be developed in the 4 nursing schools of the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC). The project has made significant progress in identifying third-party assessors for students, with two universities identified as competent in the assessment of students: The American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Saint-Joseph University (USJ). The vocational training material was prepared by USJ, and the evaluation of the students does not seem to present a conflict of interest. The project has also made progress in supporting the endorsement/certification of the technical training material. Experts have contacted 3 market players who are eligible to endorse or certify the curriculum or can help with the accreditation of the vocational training curriculum. The General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education (GDVTE) has been contacted, and a certification request letter has been prepared and signed by Chemonics. A meeting will be scheduled with the GDVTE to submit the certification application. Additionally, the project has made progress in supporting the endorsement/certification of the technical training material with the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) and the Order of Nurses in Lebanon. The LRC has accepted the content of the vocational training, and an endorsement letter has been prepared and sent to the Dean of the LRC Faculty of Nursing for approval and signature. The Order of Nurses has informed the project team that the vocational training cannot be endorsed because the "Home care agent" is not within the nursing professional categories as defined by the Order of Nurses. The project has also participated in workshops and working group sessions with the CSP team, including the advisory group starting July 2021 to discuss the "TVET social perception campaign" and the "VTE Stakeholder Engagement" working group session on September 28, 2021. The activities planned for the next reporting period, before March 15, 2022, include observation and analysis of teachers involved in trainings, teacher capacity assessment results, and students' course evaluation. These activities are expected to further support the project's objective of improving skills and job placement opportunities for unemployed or underemployed Lebanese from vulnerable communities.