In January 1986, the Hariri Foundation in collaboration with the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) sent 280 Lebanese students for technical training programs in Canada. This program was designed to help build the technical manpower which was so needed in Lebanon. CBIE was responsible for the academic placement and monitoring of the students and the financial administration of this program. Funding came from the Hariri Foundation.
The students who comprised this program were graduates from technical high school programs in Lebanon. They all held a Baccalaureate Technique (BT) high school diploma. CBIE placed these students at 24 different institutions all across Canada.
Some of these students received English language training for one or two terms before beginning the academic/technical portion of their program. Once they met the institution’s English language requirement, the students entered two to three year academic/technical programs leading to a “diplome” (comparable to an associate’s degree) in one of thirty-one different technical fields of study. These fields included interior design, photography, commercial art, data processing, hotel management, hospital management, tourism management, electronic engineering technology, automotive mechanics, construction management, air conditioning technology, chemical and biological science technology, and many others.
When the Hariri Foundation Technical Training Program in Canada came to an end in January l990, the majority of the students had successfully graduated and were awarded their “diplomes”.