HECD Project Concludes Having Successfully Supported Over 20,000 Individuals in Lebanon’s Higher Education Sector

Since 2019, the Learning Systems Institute (LSI) at Florida State University has been an implementing partner of the Higher Education Capacity Development (HECD) Program. The program aimed to build the institutional capacity of 10 universities in Lebanon, equipping students with the skills needed to succeed in local and international job markets.

The multi-year project was in partnership with the Education Development Center (EDC). The HECD program ran from 2019 to 2025 and produced tangible results boosting both teachers and students in Lebanon. HECD's cornerstone job readiness course package equipped 19,663 students with job readiness skills and trained 210 instructors across 10 universities to deliver critical job readiness and employability skills. Of the nearly 20,000 students HECD worked with, 56% were female. HECD also strengthened Higher Education Institution's (HEI) institutional capacity by providing targeted trainings and coaching sessions across several project interventions to more than 1,600 staff.

"FSU's contributions to HECD's success have been truly remarkable," said senior project director Bill Potter. "Thank you all for maintaining steadfast optimism and forward momentum during Lebanon's many unprecedented challenges over the past six years. Your dedication and perseverance resulted in significant impact on the lives of thousands of university faculty and students -- enhancing their career services, job readiness, and professional development. What a very special and rewarding journey it has been!"

Thanks to the work on the HECD project, more than 200 job readiness trainers were certified, 30 HEI staff members took part in international study tours at Florida State University, ten HEI staff acquired global experience, nine campus career centers in Lebanon were upgraded, and 500 students received financial assistance. As a result of these efforts, HECD contributed to establishing Lebanon's first nationwide career center consortium.

"I am extremely grateful for LSI's opportunity to work on the HECD program and proud of the achievements we achieved with our partners at the EDC," said LSI Director Rabieh Razzouk. "Our primary task was the advancement of career centers and I appreciate the work done by Dr. Jeffrey Garis and the FSU Career Center in that area. We had several faculty and experts from FSU contribute on this project and they set the standard for LSI's success over the six years as a partner on the project. We are thrilled that we could once again deliver results on an impactful education project."

The program's success was measured not only in the number of touch points with students and teachers in Lebanon but also by measurable improvements in employer engagement, grant writing, data for decision-making, career centers and job readiness programs. In 2020, baseline assessments revealed that all partner HEIs measured Level 1 and 2 capacities across the project's five key capacity categories. By 2024, targeted HECD training interventions and capacity-building efforts successfully advanced all HEI partners to Levels 3 or 4, demonstrating substantial institutional capacity growth. 

"When we looked at the strides made in those key metrics over five years, we were thrilled," said Razzouk. "I worked extensively on the grant writing portion of the program, and the satisfaction we had in seeing these students receive grants to fund their work was phenomenal."

LSI is at the forefront of developing innovative solutions that bridge theory and practice in education. Our experts' advanced research provides state-of-the-art methods and a clear path for implementation. For 55 years, LSI has delivered systems that measurably improve the learning and performance of organizations and individuals in Florida and worldwide.