Youth Advisory Council Urged To Advocate For Remedial Programmes To Train Unattached Young Persons

Newly installed members of the National Youth Advisory Council of Jamaica are encouraged to advocate for remedial programmes that the Government could implement to train unattached youth, in order to prevent labour shortages.

The charge came from Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, during his keynote address at the Installation Ceremony for the 2021/23 Council members. The event was held at Jamaica House in Kingston, on April 22.

Mr. Holness said the approved suggestions would be structured for a “seamless transition from school to the workforce, where businesses can plan great alignment of skills and needs”.

“We could develop a programme, for example, for logistics and business process outsourcing. [On] apprenticeships, they [would receive] a stipend for helping with digital transformation and other areas,” he noted.

The Prime Minister said that as the economy recovers from the setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaica’s unemployment rate, at 6.2 per cent, has been recorded as the lowest in the country’s history by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).

“There is still a great deal of persons who would be unemployed, possibly between 75,000 and 80,000 [and] we can’t, as the Government, just sit by and say this is so great, because you have to be considering what happens when you get to three per cent unemployment,” he said.

This, he noted, will see the need for an increase in labour to “keep the industries going”.

“[So], where will we find the labour? It’s a very important point for our consideration, and this is something our young people should start to think about,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Holness pointed out that there will be a resumption of the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme to assist in getting “young people back into a national service training programme that will help adjust their attitudes, so that they can become trainable and then employable”.

The HOPE programme is a youth-engagement initiative that targets persons aged 18 to 24 who are not employed or enrolled in a school or training programme.