BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN its continuous effort to empower the nation’s youth, the government of St. Kitts and Nevis on Friday (Feb. 13) launched a project called the Youth Empowerment through Skills (YES) in the presence of some 300 young people at the Warner Park Cricket Stadium.
The launch of the YES Project comes just a couple of weeks after its official announcement by the government. The project, as previously explained by Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas, has two main goals: (1) the advancement and empowerment of the youths and (2) curbing the crime problem which the Federation currently experiences.
A sneak peek into the project was given before a wide-cross section of the community, which included government ministers, members of the Diplomatic Corps, prospective participants and designers of the programme.
Fitzroy Wilkins, a member of the YES Project Committee and also Director of the National Skills Training Programme, said the project would cater to 500 persons between the ages of 16 and 35 and would equip them with “vocational skills, social skills, life skills, entrepreneurship as well as the right attitude to work”.
“Project YES offers training in the building and construction trades, industrial maintenance, beauty services, agriculture, hospitality services and hotel trades, sewing, arts and graphics, landscaping, automotive maintenance and repairs and office administration. What I have just mentioned...are the broad occupational areas...With Project YES, a scheme has been put in place to assist persons who want to start their own business. In addition to the vocational training, the participants will take part in sessions of social and life skills, career development and entrepreneurship. We have also decided to integrate technology into the training programme so that participants are exposed to computer applications in their respective fields,” Wilkins said.
The programme, he explained, would be coordinated by the National Skills Training Programme in collaboration with the Community and Social Development Department, and would allow for participants to experience stints of job attachment.
He further explained that while the project would not focus on participants passing any particular course, the mastery of fundamentals in respective areas of training would be stressed.
“Participants will be monitored and assessed throughout the programme. The tasks they complete will be documented so that those who wish to continue their training after the life of the project will be able to do so by adding to the competencies they would have already mastered through this project. A record of attendance, conduct, tasks performed and skills developed will be kept. Participants will be certified once they would have met the necessary criteria for completion. The criteria for completion and other specifics related to the training will be given during the orientation exercise.”
He said discipline would be a major part of the programme’s delivery.
“Participants will be monitored and assessed throughout the programme. The tasks they complete will be documented so that those who wish to continue their training after the life of the project will be able to do so by adding to the competencies they would have already mastered through this project. A record of attendance, conduct, tasks performed and skills developed will be kept. Participants will be certified once they would have met the necessary criteria for completion. The criteria for completion and other specifics related to the training will be given during the orientation exercise.”
Prospective participants were encouraged by both the PM Douglas and the Deputy PM, the Hon. Sam Condor, to seize the opportunity being provided to better themselves, their families, their communities and, by extension, the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis.
SKNVibes understands that several orientations sessions will be held shortly for those persons who have been accepted into the programme.
Following the project’s launch, dozens of prospective participants flocked to the waiting area to either collect application forms or deliver those already completed.
