From Education to Employment: Youth Trajectories in Jordan and Lebanon in the Context of Protracted Displacement

A new research programme on young people in Jordan and Lebanon in the context of protracted displacement.

Projects awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council (GCRF), Inequalities and skills acquisition in young people, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, the MENA Youth Consortium

In displacement settings, what shapes the trajectories of young people from education into employment? This is the main question we ask in this programme which is a collaboration between The Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) at Oxford Brookes University and the Centre for Lebanese Studies (CLS) at the Lebanese American University.

This research programme is based in Lebanon and Jordan, two countries with a long history of hosting refugees. It analyzes the trajectories from education to employment of youth with different legal and socio-economic statuses in various regions in each country and aims to further understand how education opportunities and experiences of refugees shape their pathways into employment and unemployment. The trajectories of Syrians and Palestinian refugees will be juxtaposed with those of vulnerable Lebanese and Jordanian youth, to examine the role of legal status, a critical but understudied dimension, since much of the discussion and research remain focused on the poor outcomes of education in protracted conflict.

With an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners and in close collaboration with local NGOs in each country this project uses a mixed-method approach, gathering data through surveys, interviews with both young refugees and nationals and their families, focus groups with youth, place-based narratives, mappings and interviews with organizations working in the field. The Education to Employment project aims for a number of wide-reaching contributions.

  • To make young people (in various legal and social positions) voices heard through a collaborative analysis and different creative productions.
  • To better understand the ways in which assistance in protracted refugee situations can become more sustainable less geared towards relief and more oriented towards self-sufficiency and long-term planning in people’s lives.
  • To help better understand how to formulate and implement appropriate education measures in refugee settings where access to employment have particular restrictions.
  • To contribute to the development of more relevant policies for young people in protracted displacement through policy briefs and advocacy workshop held in collaboration with the youth.
  • To disseminate the findings and increase public awareness through different types of publication, a documentary and a social media campaign.