MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES IN LEBANON

The category "other" has the most educated entrepreneurs (in terms of years of education), followedby hotels and restaurants, trade and industry. The illiterates and less educated are mainly found in theindustrial sector (19% in industry compared to 18.8% in trade, 14.4% in hotels and restaurants, 8.6%in other sectors).Table 29: Distribution of Entrepreneurs According to Sector of Activity and EducationNo. of years ineducation Industry Construction TradeHotels &restaurantsOthersectors TotalNo. ofresponses0 years 2.3% 0.0% 3.6% 2.1% 2.7% 3.3% 961-5 years 16.7% 21.1% 15.2% 12.3% 5.9% 14.0% 4086-9 years 41.6% 21.1% 32.5% 41.8% 31.5% 33.6% 97610-12 years 15.2% 15.8% 24.6% 19.9% 31.7% 24.4% 70913-16 years 21.0% 31.6% 19.7% 19.2% 21.5% 20.1% 58517+ years 3.1% 10.5% 4.4% 4.8% 6.7% 4.6% 134Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 2908No. of responses 257 19 2114 146 372 2908There is a clear relationship between the size of the enterprise and the level of education of theentrepreneur. Thus, while more educated entrepreneurs having between 13 and 16 years of educationaccount for 14.5% of category one enterprise, this percentage increases to 50% of category 10-49enterprises. This relation is also repeated in the higher studies category.Table 30: Distribution of Entrepreneurs According to Size and EducationSize (no. of employees)No. of education years 1 2-4 5-9 10-49 Total No. of responses0 years 5.1% 1.9% 1.9% 0.0% 3.3% 961-5 years 17.8% 11.7% 8.7% 2.6% 14.0% 4086-9 years 36.6% 33.5% 17.4% 17.9% 33.6% 97610-12 years 23.0% 25.1% 31.1% 20.5% 24.4% 70913-16 years 14.5% 22.4% 31.7% 50.0% 20.1% 58517+ years 2.9% 5.4% 9.3% 9.0% 4.6% 134Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 2908No. of responses 1306 1363 161 78 2908This correlation is significant, since value-added for enterprises belonging to category 5-49 is muchhigher than value-added for the other categories of enterprises. Thus, a positive correlation existsbetween education and the value-added of the enterprise.In terms of vocational training, only 9.8% of the sample indicates that they have had access to suchtype of education. It should be noted that a higher percentage of female entrepreneurs had vocationaland technical education as opposed to male entrepreneurs (15% for females and 9.3% for males).A lower percentage of entrepreneurs accessed apprenticeship experience (only 9.8% of the sample).No major gender differences were observed at this level.III.13.4 Years of experienceMost of the surveyed entrepreneurs have 10-19 years of experience (24%), followed by those whohave 5-9 years of experience (22%) and 1-4 years of experience (21%). Gender differences areobserved, where a higher percentage of female entrepreneurs have less than 4 years of experience(49%) compared to males (33%).III.13.5 Employment historyThe results of the survey reveal that previous employment history differs significantly amongentrepreneurs. Around 54% were employees in their earlier occupation, while 25% worked on theirown account, 8.5% were family workers and only 8.4% were employers. Females were mostlyemployees (66%), while only a small proportion were employers (4.7%) compared to males (8.5%).In addition, only 20.8% of females worked on their own account, 3.8% of females were familyworkers.35