OAS recognised by local Skills Training Programme
By Melissa Bryant
Reporter~SKNVibes.com
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OAS Representative Starett Greene
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE National Skills Training Programme (NSTP) has recognised the Organisation of American States (OAS) for its contribution to the development of skills training in St. Kitts and Nevis.
The OAS has been involved in the local development project since the inception of the former youth Youth Skills Training Programme which was inaugurated in St. Kitts in 1986.
NSTP aims to train young persons in vocational and technical fields such as Plumbing, Carpentry, Refrigeration, Hairdressing, among others, so that they can enter the workplace with certain competence levels in these areas.
At the recently held NSTP Graduation Ceremony, Director Fitzroy Wilkin presented OAS Representative in St. Kitts Starett Greene with a plaque that formally expressed the Federation’s appreciation for the invaluable and consistent support the OAS has given to the project since its establishment.
Greene expressed his pleasure at the recognition of the historic involvement between his organisation and the NSTP.
“Now that Youth Skills has evolved into a National Training Programme, there is every indication that more young people will be trained for self-employment as well as to fill opportunities created by local and foreign entrepreneurs. The OAS will continue to work in partnership with the NSTP to help meet its training needs and requirements,” Greene said. ~~Adz:Right~~
He also conveyed his hopefulness about the prospects for the Federation’s young people finding gainful employment in an economy where continued growth was forecasted in the 2009 Budget Address presented last week by Minister of Finance the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris.
Greene further stated that hundreds of persons had passed through the programme and had become integral workers in a wide variety of professions, including jobs in the public and private sectors as well as civil society.
He revealed the development of a new skills training programme that would focus on training youth in IT skills.
“The OAS would once again collaborate with the NSTP and the project would be conducted throughout all the community centres on St. Kitts. The young people from those communities who are not computer proficient will have the opportunity to be trained so that they can develop skills that will give them the impetus to become entrepreneurs in the IT field,” Greene declared.
Greene disclosed that the initiative would begin execution in May or June 2009.
