Young People Benefitting from Entrepreneurial Training

Twenty-five at-risk youth are benefitting from a five-day workshop, which will equip them with values and attitudes as well as entrepreneurial skills to create and manage successful businesses.

Dubbed: 'Creativity for Employment and Business Opportunity' (CEBO), the training is part of a regional programme developed by the CARICOM Secretariat, which is targeted at young people 15 to 29 years old. Jamaica is the first country to benefit under the initiative, which got underway on Thursday at the Kingston Youth Information Centre, 16A Half-Way-Tree Road.

Deputy Programme Manager, CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Heather Johnson, in her address at the opening ceremony, said the training is intended to inspire and motivate entrepreneurial interest and action among the participants.

She said that similar workshops will be conducted in Dominica, the Bahamas, St Kitts and Nevis, and Belize.

According to Dr. Johnson, the  training will equip young persons to better appreciate and understand the Caribbean Community  as the setting in which they can realize their dreams and aspirations, as well as to access business development opportunities under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

She said that "entrepreneurship development might not solve all the problems but it will help us to move closer as a region to the goal of economic resilience."

Minister of Youth and Culture, Hon. Lisa Hanna, said the Government is committed to empowering young people “to create their own possibilities."

She stated that while efforts are being made to put the country on a path of fiscal development and growth, “the country cannot neglect our young people."

"We want to give you opportunities that will make you access and develop a small business idea that you might have," she stated.

She informed that there are plans by the Ministry to hold similar workshops in other parishes so as to encourage more young persons to create their own jobs.

"We don’t want young people just sitting thinking that all is lost. We want to be able to say to you, here is some training, here is a way to develop that and also to provide you with a grant to get started," she added.

"It might not be big, but we want to give you a stipend to put it to good use and I ask you, take the grant and use it towards the training that you would actually get," Minister Hanna said.

CEBO was developed after research conducted by the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development in 2010, revealed that the major concerns facing young people across the region were crime and violence.

Coming out of the report, the CARICOM Heads of Government established youth entrepreneurship development as a regional priority for countering high unemployment levels, and reducing crime and violence and drug abuse among young people.

The local training programme is being conducted with support from the National Centre for Youth Development (NCYD), Ministry of Youth and Culture, Institute of Law and Economics, and the Eastern Peace Centre of the Dispute Resolution Foundation.