BASSETERRE ST. KITTS (October 14, 2009) -- If you thought auto mechanics was a man’s domain, then think twice. Next time you take your car for service or even major repairs, 32-year-old Vanessa Huggins of Ottley’s Village might be the person working under its bonnet.
Thanks to the Youth Empowerment through Skill (YES) programme Huggins, who describes herself as being a practical person who takes what is on offer as opposed to being the tomboy people think she is, is able to make heads turn – and for a good cause.
She started making heads turn when she called in at the YES Programme secretariat housed at the Development Bank Building in Church Street and announced that she wanted to be trained as a motor mechanic. A lot of heads turned. At first everyone in the office thought they heard the slim-built lady wrong.
They paid special attention when she said that she was previously a labourer at a construction site and being a mechanic was her new dream and therefore wished to be trained. Going through their records, office manager Vancelyn Williams and assistant manager/payroll clerk Ethel Francis recommended her to a vibrant mechanic, Dwayne DeCosta better known as Zumie.
“We have a number of vehicle repair shops that have taken our trainees, and even for job attachments, but all were young men,” commented Francis. “Faced with a young lady who explicitly told us that she wanted to be a mechanic we were at first apprehensive. We thought of Zumie who is a forward thinking entrepreneur as we were convinced that he would accept her.”
Their initial apprehension was somehow misplaced. After only four weeks of attachment as a trainee at Zumie’s Auto Services in Cunningham, Cayon, Vanessa Huggins has made her mark. Her trainer has said that at the end of the six month training period, he plans to hire on a full time basis two of the six YES Programme trainees. One of the two is Vanessa Huggins. If anything, her name is the first among the two.
DeCosta, who opened his business in 2002 at Lodge but moved to the bigger location at Cunningham in April this year, has seven regular employees and now the six trainees from the YES Programme. “I am looking at keeping two of them right now: Vanessa and one of the young men who have the best attitude and seem a lot more interested in the work so to speak.”
It is the first time he has had a lady work under him in that capacity and he is quite impressed by what she is doing noting that she does it well and is interested in her job. He told of the days when young men used to go to the sugar factory to train and says that the YES Programme has given a whole new meaning to the training of young people.
“The YES Programme is a good idea,” said DeCosta. “It is certainly educating the younger generation, and I think they (Government) should have thought about this a long time ago. We used to send our young people to the sugar factory for training where they only learnt one skill but the YES Programme has opened doors for more opportunities for the young people of this country as they are now being trained in all areas and all they need to do is just to choose the area and they are good to go.”
In the meantime, Vanessa said that she attended Cayon High School up to fourth form after which she worked in the sugar industry. Following its closure, she could not easily get a job, but not being a choosy person, she went to work in the construction industry as a labourer. She would still be there, had the work not come to an end.
She heard of the YES Programme and wanting to be a mechanic but no one could give her a job without the required experience, she decided to take advantage of the training opportunities being offered through the YES Programme. Her ambition is to be employed after the training and after a few years, and with more exposure, to open her own mechanic shop.
“YES Programme is serving the country well as there were many people who did not have any work and they needed opportunity to learn some trade and did not have the means or the ways to do it and the YES Programme has provided it for a lot of people,” observed Vanessa. “It is working for me and my family members and friends who took the YES Programme.”
