Growth & Jobs | Unattached youth benefit from training programme

One hundred and sixty-five unattached youth recently graduated from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s (JSIF) Alternative Livelihoods Skills and Development Project – Blue Economy training programme, during a recent ceremony at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

The project was undertaken in partnership with the RE School of Education and Technology (RESET) with funding of $34 million jointly provided by the Government and the World Bank.

The Blue Economy, which involves economic activities occurring in and around the sea, accounts for an estimated 90 per cent of Jamaica’s gross domestic product.

In this regard, the programme provided training in boat and equipment handling and repairs, lifeguarding, scuba diving, and underwater filming.

The initiative is part of JSIF’s Integrated Community Development Project, which aims to promote public safety and transformation through the delivery of basic infrastructure and social services in 18 communities islandwide.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, in lauding the graduates, encouraged them to remain focused despite the pandemic’s impact on the tourism industry, one of the biggest components of the blue economy.

In remarks read by Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) Executive Director Dr Carey Wallace, the minister told the graduates that their training has prepared them to become involved in a new brand of tourism that is emerging.

“I suspect that given the limitations of land-based vacation activities that must adhere to restrictive COVID-19 health and safety protocols, the open sea offers a greater appeal for persons to explore aquatic recreational activities,” Bartlett said.

The minister said that he harboured no doubts “that RESET would have put you through a rigorous training programme, and being counted among the graduates today means you applied yourselves well and are duly accredited for your efforts”.

Bartlett gave the assurance that the ministry and its agencies remained committed to restoring the tourism industry and making it stronger than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For his part, JSIF Managing Director Omar Sweeney encouraged the graduates to utilise their certification as a starting point to further improve their qualifications.

“If this is your first certification, it should only be that … [and] not be your only certification. You should always look back at this day and say this is the day that [you] started to matriculate or take the steps towards becoming whatever … you set your mind to,” he said.

Sweeney also told graduates that the JSIF was pleased to support them and looked forward to seeing other programmes of a similar nature emerging, adding that he was “waiting to see how many of you will eventually become trainers in this very programme”.