ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, February 9th, 2012  --   I acknowledge the protocol that has already been established, and I greet one and all gathered here, a very pleasant good morning. This morning the air is ripe with anticipation and opportunity.

Since the launch of this initiative last year, I believe all of our community is more aware and understands the importance of getting our young people into the labour force, sooner than later. As I shared in the House of Assembly last December, studies have shown that if we allow young people to sit out and not have opportunities to work and gain experience early in life, it sets them up for long-term unemployment and a life of poverty. Under the leadership of our Premier, Hon. Dr D. Orlando Smith, our government does not want that for any one of you young people, or any Virgin Islander.

That is why our government, with the support of our wider community, our business community, is determined to get you into the game as soon as possible. After a few months of making appeals, calling on colleagues and literally calling through the want ads in newspapers; on and off today’s job fair floor, we have gotten commitments from the business community for 200 available opportunities at varying levels, including 58 apprenticeships. Some of the registrants of the Youth Unemployment Registrar have even already gone on interviews and secured jobs.

These opportunities come from a wide cross-section of industries, the public service, tourism, real estate, financial services, health services, telecommunications, engineering, transportation, utilities and consumer retail. Young people, this should let you know that your Virgin Islands community is supporting you 100 and 10 percent!

Allow me this moment to have a one on one with registrants that will soon be presenting themselves to employers. I want to draw reference to an article that was published on Forbes.com, coincidently, the same day that you were asked to attend an orientation for this initiative, on Monday, January 23. The article explored international training expert Mark Murphy’s thoughts on hiring. With a best-selling book titled, Hiring for Attitude; Murphy encourages his Fortune 500 clients to do just that, hire for attitude.

There is an old saying that goes, it’s your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude. In 2012 that saying is even timelier for you the registrants of this Youth Unemployment Registrar.

In the same Forbes article, a study shared that after 18 months of tracking 20,000 first-time hires, 46% of them were terminated. While some might easily think, it was lack of experience and skill for these terminations; surprisingly 89% were fired because of attitudes that did not mesh well with the culture of the organization, 89%. Believe it our not registrants, only 11% were fired because of their skill level.

So what should this tell you? It should tell you that you don’t have to immediately have the skills needed for your dream job, but with the right attitude, you can be gainfully employed and on the path to attaining that job. As I have shared with you before, it is not how you start, but how you finish and yes, this is your opportunity to start and I encourage you to do so with the right attitude.

Be patient. Have big dreams for yourself and one day you will be that manager or that entrepreneur. However, in the meantime, learn from your supervisors. Learn to take constructive criticism, dedication to the task at hand, responsibility for yourself and to your team members, and always seek to add value to your new job.

If it means stacking shelves at Road Town Wholesale, do it efficiently and enthusiastically. It shows your supervisors that you are ready for a new challenge. If your job is to serve as a receptionist at Scrub Island Resort, have a pleasant personality and take the time to know the ins and outs of your organization. It will add to your efficiency and a positive public image of your new company; there success is your success.

If you are hired as an engineer at LIME, master your workload and explore what opportunities are available to allow your company to take advantage of new technology. It shows that you are interested in your field and identify with the success of your organization.

Though these things might seem simple, as an employer, I know it means that you are interested in seeing all of us succeed and that is the attitude that puts you on the path to promotion.

To our employers, I say to you, thank you. While we can hope and wish for the best for these young people, many of you are stepping out on a limb and stepping up to the plate to offer assistance. Many of you went back to your book-keepers and asked them to find a way to work one or two young persons into the payroll. And some of you are offering the opportunity to give these youths training and exposure to your industries through apprenticeships.

This says to me that our business community realizes that by offering opportunities to our youth, you also offer the chance for the entire Virgin Islands to be revitalized. The value of these opportunities does not come as a mere exchange of payment for services.

They come with the belief that by helping a youth in the Virgin Islands enter the job force at an early stage, gives us all the opportunity to benefit from gainfully engaged young professionals, ready to take up their responsibility in advancing our society.

It is important for our business community to remain vibrant and good employees are a fundamental part of driving that economy. Some of these young people will fall down a few times. They will make a few mistakes, but I also ask you to have a bit of patience with them. They will need you to train them and help them assimilate to the culture of your organization.

After today, we are not just releasing these young people to you. We want them to be successful, and that is why we will be retaining the service of Mr. Albert Wheatley, one of the facilitators of our work readiness programme to follow up with you and our registrants to ensure that the lines of communication are open, and they have every opportunity to adjust to their new responsibilities.

Based on the information we have received, we also now know that this programme cannot end today. We will keep the Youth Unemployment Register open in an effort to provide readiness training to even more young people and allow them the opportunity to engage with prospective employers. We will do this while we also look at our education system and address the reasons why some of our students are not adequately prepared to immediately enter the job market.

Many young people have complained that they do not feel equipped to tackle many jobs in one of our most important sectors, financial services. Registrants gathered here today, I want you to know that businesses in our financial services industries also know this and they are ready to assist in your training. I am pleased to announce hat the BVI Association of Registered Agents have partnered with the Youth Unemployment Registrar initiative and have contributed two scholarships for diploma courses.

This will allow interested registrants to earn internationally recognized training and certification to become a chartered administrator or compliance officer. The BVI ARA represents approximately 90% of companies and registered agents in the Virgin Islands. Youth of the territory, once again this shows that our business community are aware of the challenges and are willing to assist in the development of the next leaders in our financial service industry.

I want to say a special thank you to Mr Shord Koster, the BVI ARA's Deputy Head of Education, for facilitating this opportunity. Persons that are interested in applying, please see my ministry's Acting Permanent Secretary, Dr Marcia Potter about this opportunity.

Again, I want to express sincere thanks to the Virgin Islands business community for your unselfish efforts. We recognize that these are not the best of economic times, but we were still able to count on you to support this initiative, and for that the entire Virgin Islands thanks you. To the young people gathered here today, get ready to present your resumes to prospective employers and… Leh we do this ting!

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