Jones

Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

Young people have until the end of this week to apply for the National Youth Service's (NYS) Summer Programme which places them in temporary jobs across Jamaica.

An original deadline had been set for May 11, earlier than in previous years.

With government having increased its budget, the NYS is making available 6,000 places - up from 5,000 last year - with stipends increased by $500 to $3,500 and $3,000 per week for tertiary students and secondary students respectively. Applicants must either be in fifth form or studying at the tertiary level.

Increased number of places

NYS Executive Director, Reverend Adinhair Jones, said the number of places was increased from 5,000 last year to meet the excess demand with over 12,000 persons applying annually. This year students are to be interviewed by the NYS on a parish basis with the final 6,000 to be selected randomly.

"The programme is major when you consider that we have a large subset of society that's called 'unattached young people' who are unemployed or not at school, and with 50,000 leaving the school-system each year there is a need for basic employment opportunities," he said. "There is also a need, one to resocialise many of them to an extent and secondly to make them more viable for employment," Rev. Jones said.

When applying to their parish NYS offices all applicants must submit a resume with a covering letter. Rev. Jones said this is intended to teach job applicants about how to apply for work once they enter the labour market.

The 6,000 young people are to be split into two groups with one having its placements in July and the other in August.

ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com