Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer

Xavier Artis, founder of Recycling Inspiration. - photo by Claudia Gardner

WESTERN BUREAU; United States-based Recycling Inspiration (RI) has teamed up with SuperClubs to establish the Recycling Inspiration Fellowship (RIF) Exchange Programme, to bridge the three-year waiting period for admitting young people to the HEART Trust/NTA.

According to Xavier Artis, the founder of RI (a cause-related international brand marketing company), the programme's idea was conceptualised following a recent visit to Grand Lido Braco Resort and Spa in Trelawny, in preparation for the Jamaica 360 degree Sun Festival held at the resort this week.

Three-year waiting list

"I sat with four of the hospitality staff at the resort when I started to do the due diligence. I asked what they thought we ought to be focussed on, and they indicated that HEART has this hospitality programme, but that there was a three-year waiting list, so we decided this was where we should assist," Mr. Artis explained.

SuperClubs has donated three acres of land on the Grand Lido Braco property to the project as a part of its commitment, while local construction and equipment company, The Nakash Company, will construct the facility.

Mr. Artis said the programme, which will commence this September, will see the college graduates who enrol in the programme, spending six months in Jamaica preparing HEART trainees for careers in the hospitality industry, including business administration and entertainment.

"We are going to take historically black college graduates, and have the HEART top trainers train them for a month firstly. They will in turn train the HEART trainees," he explained. "We already have 300 jobs earmarked for them (Jamaican trainees) in SuperClubs" resorts across Jamaica.

Paid in US currency

Mr. Artis added: "The students will be paid in U.S. currency while in training, and this needs to be stressed. And in addition, once they come out of training, the jobs earmarked for them will also be paid in U.S. currency."

He said the goal is to have 360 U.S. college graduates training three times the amount of students, in an effort to build education in Jamaica.

"It is an exchange programme, so our college graduates will learn culture, learn to appreciate and extend themselves and a sense of sharing, to understand that they can not become what they are supposed to be, until people that look like them become what they, are supposed to be," Mr. Artis said.