Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
Dr. Donald Rhodd (right), Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, converses with Ohene Blake, executive director of the National Centre for Youth Development. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
IN RESPONSE to the growing rate of youth unemployment in Jamaica, Government will initiate a number of programmes to increase employment opportunities starting next year, State Minister in Education, Dr. Donald Rhodd, told The Sunday Gleaner recently.
The year is expected to begin with increased participation in the National Youth Service programme (NYS). Government is expected to increase participation by 200 per cent, moving the
number of participants from 3,500 to 10,000 by September. The first expansions are expected to start as early as June, in time for the
summer employment programme.
"It will be in the new budgetary year, so we have prepared a proposal to go to cabinet in anticipation of the new budget 2006/ 2007," he says.
The NYS runs for seven months in phases. During phase one, participants undergo four weeks of training at a residential centre, after which they are assigned to serve in a public or private organisation. Only 12,000 youths have been placed in jobs since 1995.
Last year, the unemployment rate among youths was four times more than unemployment among adults. The unemployment rate of 14-24-year-olds was 30.6 per cent, the Planning Institute of Jamaica states.
To better youth opportunities, Government also says it will introduce an entrepreneurship programme next year, to train and mentor young people in the process of starting and sustaining a business.
"We are going to look at business mentors and requisite partners in business to see how well we can assist them to become entrepreneurs," Dr. Rhodd says.
Some of the sectors to be looked at will include agriculture where a number of partners have already been secured, including the Jamaica 4H Club, the Scientific Research Council and the Jamaica Business Development Centre, to assist in supporting the youths' ideas and market them.
The Government will be
working in partnership with the HEART Trust/NTA and various industries in tourism and bauxite to train youth for job opportunities that will arise from the expansions.
Additionally, Dr. Rhodd says the Government will be partnering with service clubs and churches to increase employment and development opportunities for less fortunate youths through the Possibility Programme. The programme was initiated by Government in 1999 to eliminate the number of youths on the street by providing sustainable educational, employment and self-development opportunities.
The programme will increase its data collection methods to identify more at-risk youth in communities across the island.
"It's not just picking them up off the streets, but picking them up off the streets and doing a proper assessment of what their capacities are, what their deficiencies are and see how we can fill those gaps," he says.
