BRADES, Montserrat (February 21, 2011) – Helping Youth Prepare for Employment (HYPE) hosted a one-day seminar for the young people in its apprenticeship programme last Friday at Government Headquarters.

HYPE, which is an initiative of the Ministry of Youth Affairs Community Services and Sports (MYACSS), presently has 20 young persons who are assigned to work in various government and private sector positions to learn valuable experience and earn a small income.

Speakers on Friday included Manager of the Bank of Montserrat Michael Joseph, Manager of LIME Joseph Cassell, Agatha Aspin from the Montserrat Development Corporation and Eugene Skerritt, Permanent Secretary for MYACSS.

The participants were given theoretical and practical exercises dealing with developing good interpersonal skills, small business development, time management, money management, and customer service.

Jamal St. Hill, who obtained a job with The Montserrat Reporter through HYPE, remarked the seminar was good and quite usefully, especially the presentations by Mr. Skerritt and LIME Manager Joseph Cassell.

The HYPE programmed is targeted at youth 16 to 30 who are unemployed and provides an opportunity for participants to gain six months work experience in their area of interest.