The three new centres have been part-funded by the UK government, which provided a LD100,000 ($80,000) grant to help buy equipment.

The Minister of Labour and Retraining, Mohamed Sualem, discussed vocational training initiatives with his Tunisian counterpart and says $80m (LD100m) has been set aside for youth training. 

The Ministry of Education says that 500 schools will undergo maintenance work during this year's summer holidays.

This year's state budget has set aside LD1bn ($800m) for vocational training, with funding for government employees, former fighters, private-sector workers, unemployed Libyans and civil society organisations.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research plans to send more than 5,600 staff and students on overseas training courses.

A group of representatives from several UK universities made a three-day visit to Libya last week to seek cooperation and business opportunities.

The technical and vocational training arm of Libya's Ministry of Higher Education has signed an MoU with a UK trade body representing training providers, which recently visited Libya.

Libya's Ministry of Higher Education has signed a three-year cooperation agreement with its Sudanese counterpart aimed at increasing staff and student exchanges of students, and sharing academic research.

Figures showing the number of schools, pupils and classes per district in Libya for 2012.

A study of 4,800 Libyan schools carried out by the UN and the Ministry of Education also found that a quarter of institutions did not provide safe drinking water to pupils.

The Ministry of Education plans to build 149 new schools in more than 50 towns across Libya to replace makeshift or run-down facilities.

According to a report in the UK press, the Liverpool Community College is planning to set up an English-language school for adults in Tripoli.

The authorities in Benghazi plan to carry out maintenance work on a number of schools in the city.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has proposed a new Minister of Higher Education after his original candidate for the post was rejected by the Integrity Commission.

The state-owned university is participating in the EU-funded Erasmus Mundus programme on exchange and cooperation in higher education.