Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 12, 2009 (SKNIS): Government’s initiative to train young unemployed persons in several occupational areas sees record numbers sign up for orientation in various communities around the island.

About a month ago, Prime Minister, Hon. Denzil Douglas, along with other Ministers of Government and Industry leaders, launched the Youth Empowerment through Skills (YES) Project at the Warner Park National Stadium. The initiative is an outgrowth of the National Consultation on Crime held in November of 2008, which saw the need to promote social skills development as well as the creation of employment opportunities for the nation’s youth.

The Project takes a two pronged approach to the assessment of persons’ skills level and placement into the appropriate job attachment assignment. Persons that are skilled and have previous training are grouped based on residence, while unskilled persons are classed based on the occupational code chosen.

Azilla Clarke, Implementation Committee Member, explained that although the orientation phase had been extended, by the end of the week, most of the persons who are skilled and have had previous training would be screened. “We apologize for the delay due to the overwhelming number of persons registering, but we would like to sincerely thank everyone who not only showed up, but really engaged in the process, Ms. Clarke added.

The Project hopes to have most of the skilled youth placed in their respective job attachments by Monday, March 16th, 2009.

YES will now move to address the unskilled youth who will have information related to their social security number and bank information recorded for the administration of the project for payment of a stipend.

Unskilled persons will receive up to 12 weeks of basic training after which time their job attachment assignment will commence.

The YES Project is being administered by the National Skills Training Program of the Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Ministry of Social and Community Development.