Revitalizing professions, occupations and
vocations
Marie-Claude Helou Saade
Nothing can better further the social and economic development of a country than the
revitalization of its professions, occupations and vocations. As far back as October 1999,
I conceived the project Revitalization of Professions, Occupations and Vocations in
Lebanon and I presented it to senior representatives of international organizations in
Lebanon, who expressed a marked interest in it. Some aspects of this project and this
strategic vision have even experienced a beginning of execution on the part of some of
these organizations.
Revitalization of Professions, Occupations and Vocations has set out, as an objective, to
improve the statute, the professional performances and the productivity of the selected
categories while encouraging and promoting the observance of ethical rules and codes of
ethics.
The professional categories concerned in the first phase would be the craftsmen, the fish
breeders, the beekeepers and service providers. But the project could extend to include
other categories.
Regarding the profile of the activities to be promoted, they should be useful to the
economy and to the national interest and/or offer work opportunities on the labor market.
They could be existing activities already practiced in Lebanon, or new activities which it
might be opportune to introduce and promote. Activities such as ceramics, blown glass and
wrought iron could act as one of the first “sparks” of this project.
But, how does the plan’s anatomy present itself?
The implementation of this project will imply working at six levels:
l Sociological: census (surveys and statistical studies)
l Educational: professional and vocational training (initial and continuous training).
This would take place at both technical and artistic levels.
l Financial: micro-financing
l Commercial: This would involve marketing through the establishment and promotion of
cooperatives and consumer markets
l Health and environment: This would involve the reinforcement of health and sanitary
conditions and environment protection
l Legislative: This would involve the evolution of laws and regulations.
Microfinancing is consequently included in the process of revitalization of professions,
occupations and vocations and forms an essential support to it.
One of the greatest international experts in microcredit once stated that:
“Microcredit is meant to help each individual to reach his or her potential. It does
not evoke the monetary capital, but the human capital.”
Microcredit addresses then the human capital.
This amounts in the framework of this project to help groups of individuals
belonging to specific professional categories to go to the end of their capacities by
making them benefit from an accompanying process going from the learning and the
perfecting phase of a profession, occupation or vocation to the terminal commercial one.
Thus, not only would we offer them the adequate framework to improve their professional
performances but also and above all we would initiate them to all the chain of
operations necessary to succeed in an enterprise.
Practically, this would mean in the framework of this project an inversion of the
steps that are usually taken: Instead of going from a wide range of borrowers and
afterward taking an interest in the activities that they carry out, we would, on the
contrary, go from a scrupulous selection of activities useful to the economy and to the
national interest to take afterward an interest in those who carry them out.
We would therefore promote professions, occupations and vocations and all selected
professional activities through, among other tools, microfinancing.
Not only would this approach be useful to the economy and to the national interest but it
would have the great advantage of strongly sensitizing one of the main actors of
microcredit, which is the banking sector. Its current lukewarm state could be partially
explained by the little interest banks give to the activities usually concerned by
microcredit. This attitude might however drastically alter in case of change of
“menu” that is if better targeted and more motivating activities were
suggested to them. If well conceived and carried out, such an initiative would further a
considerable qualitative jump to microcredit not only in our country but also beyond our
borders.
Breathing new life into professions, occupations and vocations is the ambitious challenge
that will be executed through an important nongovernmental organization which will very
soon see the light of day. The Lebanese associative sector will definitely be solicited to
take part in this great and extensive national project. Marie-Claude Helou Saade is a social and economic expert. She wrote this
article for the Daily Star.
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