Basseterre St. Kitts (September 15, 2009) -- Seven months after the now highly successful and popular Youth Empowerment through Skills (YES) Programme was launched by Prime Minister the Hon Dr Denzil Douglas, 70 students have been placed on training attachments in the last two weeks.
“We are continuing our efforts to train and empower the youths in our federation,” said Joseph O’Flaherty, YES Programme’s field officer, as a new class of 20 YES Programme IT students kicked off at CompuDoctors, an affiliate of KVK Enterprises Limited, on West Cayon Street in Basseterre on Monday.
While only 12 had turned up on Monday, O’Flaherty explained that the total class size will be twenty and will run for four months after which the students will be placed on job attachments. This number complements the 50 YES Programme students who started IT training two weeks ago at the IT Centre in the CAP Southwell Industrial Park.
When the Prime Minister launched the YES Programme on February 13, it was supposed to cater for 500 youths for a period of six months. However, due to its popularity and needs among the youth, the YES Programme secretariat at the Development Bank Building on Church Street has been overwhelmed by the number of applicants who are still coming in.
“This is a brand new lot that has been in our database – they have not been accessed or attached to any side, either training or work attachment,” explained O’Flaherty. While the programme was meant to cover 500 students for a six-month period, none of the new applicants have been turned away and their training cycle will run for six months upon placement.
According to the manager at the YES Programme secretariat, Vancelyn Williams, the database has a total of 1539 applications, but over 1000 youths have so far been placed on training and job attachments. Efforts are being put in place to place those still in the database as that was the mandate of the programme. Each student receives a monthly stipend of $300 per week.
On receiving the new trainees, the CEO of KVK Enterprise Limited, Khrystus Wallace, noted that since the programme started he has successfully trained three batches. Most of those he trained have gone on field work, while he has retained some of them on job attachment and are helping him out in his business.
“They are pretty good and it shows they are versatile and with a bit of help they will reach far in their chosen fields of endeavour,” commented Wallace. “From the skills that they would have learnt, and their abilities, they are so good I have been able to retain some of them.”
Apart from the basics in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft PowerPoint that the new students will be exposed to, Wallace explained that they will also be taught how to use the internet.
“Since the programme is basically trying to help the folks develop that skill and of course lead them into a business entrepreneurial sector, we are going to actually make an additional component which shows them how to create business plans, how to develop their businesses, how to approach banks to get loans and that kind of thing,” noted Wallace.
Jadah Eddy, who is among the YES Programme trainees retained on job attachment at CompuDoctors, said that from the training he received, he is now able to fix computers and is happy to be helping in the training of other YES Programme students.
“When I was attached in March, I knew very little about computers,” said Eddy. “During the training, things were put in a way that I could understand more, and right now I am trying to learn advanced graphics skills using Photoshop 11.0, which is the latest version in the market and is part of the Adobe Master Collection CS4.
“I am quite happy with the progress that I am making. I am happy for the YES Programme and for Khrystus (Wallace). To have someone like Khrystus to push me and guiding me so that I could be a better person in life and excel in my endeavours is an honour.”
When Joy Codrington joined the YES Programme in March, she had applied to be trained in the secretarial field. However, since she was placed on training at CompuDoctors she now realises that while this component of training also covers secretarial, it is much wider and gives her more options for the future. She is one of those retained on job attachment at CompuDoctors.
“I liked the course so much as it is a combination of the secretarial skills I was looking for and much more,” explained Codrington. “I have learned how to use computers and how to start my own business. Yes, the course that I did here has fully equipped me to start my own business. I am still here (on job attachment) because I am assisting him (Khrystus Wallace) with the training of the new ones coming in and other jobs that I am required to do.”
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