With no jobs and no perspectives: inside a professional school in Syria to show what 14 years of war have left for the youngster. A photoreportage by Aldo Gianfrate
Fourteen years of war have dismantled Aleppo's economic base and narrowed the pathways into work for its youth. Once Syria’s industrial engine, the city now concentrates 53% of the country’s total earthquake-related damage, an estimate of 79,000 workers have lost their jobs after the sisma and 95% of households reported an income insufficient to meet basic needs.
Many young people have left the country in search of stability, leaving classrooms and workshops in Aleppo with fewer students, fewer resources, and limited prospects for those who remain.
Inside one of Aleppo’s industrial institutes, in the Al-Masharqa neighborhood, students and teachers describe cracked buildings, outdated manuals, missing tools, and long commutes through a city where job prospects have steadily collapsed.
With support from F2i, AVSI is rehabilitating industrial schools in Aleppo—repairing classrooms, upgrading labs, installing solar and water systems, and providing new tools. The project aligns training with market needs, strengthens teachers’ skills, and offers youth courses, career coaching, and on-the-job placements. These interventions complement another project, which delivers the life-skills training for students, allowing for a more comprehensive approach inside the institutes.
A mother and her daughter at a bus stop in Al-Masharqa, a neighborhood in western Aleppo.
Students attend a lesson inside the industrial high school of Al-Masharqa, western Aleppo.
On the left, students play football during a break in the courtyard. Since compulsory military service was lifted, enrollment at the school has dropped sharply. On the right, Fozya Abd Alrhman, 34, works as electronics instructor in a lab with outdated or no longer functioning equipment. The war forced her to halt her engineering studies for 3 years.
Solar panels cover the rooftops of central Aleppo, a widespread workaround to the city’s chronic electricity shortages.
F2i funded AVSI’s project aims to upgrade these spaces with new equipment, safer infrastructure, and more reliable power, giving students the tools they need to learn their trade.
Ayman Korshid, 15 studies mechanics and spends nearly an hour each day commuting to the school. He says there is demand for skilled workers, but training with limited tools makes it difficult.
On the left, the exterior of the car-electricity lab. Students and teachers assembled it themsleves with leftover materials. On the right, a workshop set up in a basement corridor served as an improvised training space.
On the left, old equipment and worn-out classrooms reflect years of limited maintenance inside the vocational school. On the right, a classroom in the school shows peeling walls, broken windows, and aging desks — signs of years without maintenance.
Fadi Al Bayoush, 51, a car-electricity teacher: “Many tools and machines are old, and we don’t have the materials we
need,” he says, “The most difficult thing is to keep lessons aligned with what students will face outside the school”.
Mohammad Nour Mubarak, /left) 18, a student who trains every afternoon in a small air-conditioning shop. “I want to stay, learn a job and build my future”. Shaban Ajjan, (right) part of AVSI’s team, who conducted the Training for the teachers and now provides ongoing support to ensure the quality of the activities
Two images from the electronics lab. Fozya Abd Alrhman: “The best thing,” she says, “is when I arrive and see the students — it reminds me what I bring to them."
Students gather for a photo in the school courtyard.
