GG Calls on Businesses to Mentor Young Graduates

Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, is calling on local businesses to act as mentors for young graduates and assist them to create job opportunities for themselves.

He argued that with traditional sources for job creation “running dry” and more and more young people graduating with no job prospects, they have to contemplate new possibilities.

“We have to encourage them to consider entrepreneurship and for this they need mentors from within the private sector,” he emphasized.

The Governor-General was speaking at the recent opening of the FosRich Lifestyle store in Mandeville, Manchester, on July 10.

He said the budding entrepreneurs need mentors who will be willing to share their expertise and experience in an effort to encourage the growth of the country’s business sector.

“We cannot afford to lose the majority of our best trained to overseas companies. We need their brains and skills for the development of this country,” the Governor-General asserted.

He praised the proprietors of the FosRich Group of Companies, Cecil and Marion Foster, for believing enough in Jamaica to “massively re-invest their profits in their company” when they opened their headquarters in 2009 in the midst of the global economic recession.

The Governor-General further lauded the Fosters for exercising good corporate social responsibility through investment in the lives of people, especially young people, and providing support for programmes to improve the quality of life for the most vulnerable in the nation, helping them to become more productive citizens.

He pointed to FosRich’s support for the ‘Good Samaritan Inn’ which cares for the needy, the hungry and the homeless in the Corporate Area; and ‘Parenting Jamaica’, a parenting programme of the “I Believe Initiative” (IBI).

The IBI seeks to motivate youth to believe in their God-given potential to excel and therefore, to aspire and work to succeed in their undertakings.

FosRich provides energy saving solutions, including the supply and installation of solar water heaters, solar lighting and light emitting diodes (LED) and induction lighting products.