NYS To Host Youth Opportunity Fair In Clarendon Feb. 20

The National Youth Service (NYS) will host another in its series of Youth Opportunity Fairs on Friday, February 20 at the Denbigh High School in Clarendon, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
These Youth Opportunity Fairs target unemployed young persons in all the parishes.
“The concept behind the opportunity fairs is to provide young persons with information about the employment and educational opportunities that are available to them,” NYS Corporate Services Officer, Courtney Johnson, told JIS News.
Mr. Johnson, who is responsible for youth development in Clarendon and Mandeville, pointed out that young persons between the ages of 17 and 29 years are being targeted, especially those who have a secondary school education but are finding it difficult to access jobs.
He noted that the event was jointly sponsored by the HEART Trust/NTA and the NYS.
The fair in Clarendon is the eighth to be hosted by the NYS, and some 30 private and public sector entities will participate.
Measuring the success of the previous fairs, Mr. Johnson said: “We have found that the outcome has been very good, in that we have been able to meet the target of the number of persons we anticipated.”
He said that to date, the fairs have also proved successful in “engaging the youth by providing them with information on careers that they had no prior knowledge of, or knew how to access”.
Explaining that there was no focus on any particular career, he said ideally, the fair is geared towards “bringing the young persons in tune with some of the private and public sector businesses and jobs that are available and how they might go ahead in accessing these jobs”.
“We also expose them to training institutions that can offer them assistance such as HEART/NTA, NYS, nursing schools and other schools that are in Clarendon,” he added.
Participants at the fair will also have the chance to attend a number of workshops throughout the day.
Following a general assembly in which all the young participants are addressed, Mr. Johnson explained that there were workshops where discussions would take place on such topics as goal setting, individual career planning, and entrepreneurship.
Companies offering job prospects at the Youth Opportunity Fair include the Jamaica Fire Brigade, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Inland Revenue Department, Clarendon Health Department, Rural Agricultural Development Authority, and Caribbean Coastal Area Management. All the participating companies will conduct career clinics, which will detail the job opportunities available within their respective companies.
To assist the unemployed to explore educational opportunities, representatives from academic institutions such as Knox Community College, the University of the West Indies Distance Programme and the School of Cosmetology will also be on hand and will outline matriculation requirements and provide guidance.