25 entrepreneurs graduate from Clarendon Youth in Business training programme
ENTREPRENEUR MARK Shand, who owns fashion accessories outlet K&M Designs, first decided to make ladies’ handbags from calabash after meeting a woman who owned one for 10 years.
“I examined it, liked it, and started to make them some time later. The same woman saw my version, liked it, and suggested that I make earrings as well,” he shared.
Shand said to better prepare himself for this expanded pursuit, he enrolled in the Clarendon Municipal Corporation’s (CMC) three-month Clarendon Youth In Business (CYIB) training programme.
He was one of 25 participants who graduated last week and, in the process, received a share of grants through the programme totalling $2.5 million. Each person received $150,000 to assist with their business ventures.
These include fashion designing, welding, grocery/farm supplies retailing, photography, cinematography, agriculture, poultry and goat rearing, manufacturing, and food processing.
The presentations were made during the graduation ceremony at the CMC in May Pen.
They also received additional funding support totalling $1.25 million courtesy of Local Government and Community Development Minister Desmond McKenzie, who was the keynote speaker.
McKenzie lauded the graduates, noting that their endeavours “will make an even greater impression on the reduction of the unemployment rate among young people in the island ... [as you] want to be selfreliant and create a better Jamaica for [your] families and [yourselves]”.
He described the CYIB initiative as “local government in action”, pointing out that “this is a part of community development that is creating the environment within communities so that young men and women can find an avenue for expression”.