BASSETERRE ST. KITTS (April 29, 2009) -- When Prime Minister, the Hon Dr Denzil Douglas, addressed a well attended town hall meeting at Lodge on Tuesday night, he took the nation by surprise when he announced that the YES Programme now has over 800 persons who have either been given employment or are being trained.
The Youth Empowerment through Skill (YES) programme, which was mooted following a consultation on crime that was held in December after people said they were fed up with crime, was initially meant to cater for 500 persons. At the consultation Dr Douglas had promised that the government would do something about the escalating crime situation.
“The Labour Government is able to respond to the challenges of today,” said the Prime Minister at Lodge. “We have employed a host of young people who were sitting idle on street corners doing nothing but committing crimes and molesting people. Today those young people are empowered. They are learning a skill for them to be employed so that they can provide themselves and their families with financial support.”
The YES Programme was launched on February 13 as a means to give alternative activities to the nation’s young people. The response has been overwhelming with the target number being surpassed in just under three months due to the great demand for opportunities and the willingness of the government to accommodate every deserving person.
“We as a very bold, mature, experienced and responsible caring government immediately sat down and we came up with the YES Programme. Today, over 800 young people are to be employed and being taught new skills in the YES programme,” he told the large gathering at the Violet Petty Primary School in Lodge.
While addressing the nation during the radio call in programme, ‘Ask the Prime Minister’, aired by several radio stations, earlier on the same day, he said that the programme was part of the government’s stimulus package and that despite the current financial problems, his government would have to find the money to finance the programme to its end.
Chairman of the Implementing Committee for the YES Programme Mr Fitzroy Wilkin, who is also the Director of the National Skills Training Programme, said that the programme has surpassed their wildest expectations and the secretariat has had its staff doubled, from two to four so as to deal with all the cases that are presented to them.
“The project is very appealing to young people,” observed Wilkin. “Some people see the project as a saviour in the sense that since we have started planning the implementation, a number of companies have laid off persons and so, they saw it fit to apply to the YES project. These are persons who were not initially included in the programme.
“In the initial stage, the target population was 500 persons. But because of the number of layoffs and the number of persons who are now out of job, what the committee is saying, and the Prime Minister also made the statement, we are going to try and see how much we can help. So, the total that we have on our database is approximately 1100.”
The programme’s lifespan was supposed to be six months, but according to Wilkin, because persons are being placed at different times, it will not fold-up after the six months and will go on until all who would have been accepted have gone through the training.
A number of persons who applied indicated that they had some skills in the areas they were applying for, and these were sent straight for job attachment. However for those who had no skills, the programme has arranged to have them undergo a 12-week training programme to help them to develop some basic skills.
“The training is being done at various sites throughout the country,” explained Wilkin. “We are using community centres at Lodge, St. Paul’s, Conaree, McKnight, Challengers and the St. Johnson. The community centres are used for social and life skills aspect of it. We have a food and beverage course at Challengers Community Centre.”
While attached to the programme, each person receives a stipend of EC$300 per week. To qualify for the stipend one has to be either in training or in direct job attachment. The secretariat is doing its best to attach all the 1100 in their database for training or direct job attachment.
The age bracket for persons in the programme was initially 16 to 35 years, but Wilkin observed that they have received applications from a number of persons that were over 35 years old. Rather turn them away, the National Skills Training Programme, of which Wilkin is the director, proposed to organise training for those persons who would have been above the limit.
On Tuesday April 28, a group of five excited young persons were sent for direct job attachment at Snapper (St. Kitts & Nevis), a fish farm at Conaree owned by Dr Barrington Brown. These were Kevin Browne, Jermaine Merritt, Kenni Martin, Lori Williams and Emrin Forbes. Another five are expected to be sent to the fish farm.
According to unofficial records at the YES Programme’s secretariat housed on the lower floor of the Development Bank building Church Street in Basseterre, 23-year-old Lori Williams a resident of McKnight is the 500th person to have been offered direct job attachment. This number does not include those undergoing training.
