BASSETERRE ST. KITTS (August 10, 2009) -- Twenty-one-year-old Kevin Liddie who originally hails from LaGuerite in the Village area has always harboured the dream of assembling computers since he was 12 years old. He even attended the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College to empower himself, but due to unforeseen circumstances he did not finish the course.
When the Youth Empowerment through Skills (YES) programme was launched in February this year by Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas, young Liddie knew without having to be coaxed much, that his time had come. He however chose to swim against the current, and he made it. In an interview last week, he said: “Look at me, I am learning to make computers.”
The idea behind the launching of the YES Programme was for the country to build a data base of what skills are out there and in the end match those skills with jobs. Intended to assist 500 young people, the data base now has over 1,000 and the number is steadily growing even as the programme is due to technically close after six months.
Kevin liked the idea and decided to climb the tree from the top, by approaching the prospective employer for attachment, and so impressed was his targeted employer that they had to give in and ask the YES Programme to have Kevin Liddie attached to their office.
The six month training is not over, but Peter Chevozerov a director of Peter.KN Inc., is so impressed by Kevin’s rate of absorption of computer skills that the company has promised to hire him on a full time basis after the six-month training period is over.
Kevin is not just a lucky young man. Kevin is a hard worker who was lucky because the YES Programme was a timely intervention that was instituted when the country and its growing number of unemployed youth needed it most. He thanks the government for having seen it fit to start such a programme.
Currently he lives at the Buckley’s Development Project. He attended the Dr William Connor Primary School, Basseterre High School and “from there I left and I went on to the CFB College, and I was studying computers the time I was there. I was there for about one year, I never completed my course.”
When he left college he started doing part time jobs as he does not believe that idle hands are what this country needs. He even took it the hard way by assisting his father, who is a building contractor. When the YES Programme was launched, his mother talked to him, but he jumped before he was pushed, and did so from the deep end, when others sought solace by dipping their feet in the shallow end.
He was interviewed at the YES Programme and asked what he wanted to do among the many choices that they had to offer. He opted to take his favourite, and that was in the field of computers. However unlike others in the YES Programme, he decided to lead as opposed to being led.
“I recommended the place where I wanted to go for attachment because I had been at Peter.KN Inc. before and I saw these guys, they were the best – so I just wanted to be a part of Peter.KN and so I came here to get my training,” he said during the interview. “They basically had what I wanted to do, because what I wanted to do was learning to build computers, doing computer repairs and everything like that and Peter.KN I felt was the place for me.”
He further stated: “I talked to Peter (Chevozerov) about it first and then I talked to the YES Programme and told them about Peter.KN and that I wanted to be a part of Peter.KN Inc., so I asked Peter to call them at the YES Programme and confirm everything and so he did that and here I am.”
He has now been at Peter.KN, which is situated upstairs the building that was formerly occupied by City Drug Store on Fort Street, for nearly two months and during his time there he has been learning how to build computers and a lot more that he never even knew about before. He is also being taught the art of customer relations.
“I would tell all young people who have no jobs to join the YES Programme instead of roaming about in the villages doing nothing, because the YES Programme is good,” admonishes Kevin. “The government has done something great. When you go to the YES Programme you get a variety of skills and jobs that are available for you and you go and choose whatever you want to do and it is good for you, because you learn.
“Look at me, I am here, I am learning computers.. I never thought that I might have succeeded to doing what I wanted in life, but this is what I feel like I want to do in life, this is what I wanted to do from when I was twelve years old. Through the YES Programme I have been able to realise my dreams.”
Peter Chevozerov, the director of Peter.KN Inc, said that the company was started in September last year, and due to the demand of computers which are duty free in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, his business has grown in leaps and bounds, made so because he sells his computers at near factory prices.
He said that he first heard of the YES Programme when Kevin came and mentioned it to them. “I said I will think about it a bit and I wasn’t quite sure if we could take on and have the ability to train someone right now because we were pretty busy. So to take time to train somebody would have been quite a burden on us,” said Chevozerov.
“But he came back and after that I saw him a couple of times, and even saw him at the theatre and he appeared intelligent and honest so we decided to give it a try. It has been very good because he picks up very quickly but to hire him straight out we could not have done that.”
He welcomed the innovation by the YES Programme which allowed them to take Kevin on and train him and because YES Programme absorbed that burden a bit for the young company he said that they will certainly by the end of his training Kevin take him on because he should be useable for fulltime employment.
Asked to confirm that statement, Peter Chevozerov said: “Absolutely there will be room for him after his training, I do not even think that is in question.”
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