National Unattached Youth Programme reaping success in St Ann
THE NATIONAL Unattached Youth Programme (NUYP) is going well in St Ann, according to Anisa Wilson-Smith, senior programme development specialist in the youth and adolescent policy division of the Ministry of Education.
The NUYP, a government-funded programme, provides opportunities for unattached young people to get skills in various areas such as cake baking, bartending, housekeeping, tour guide, business administration, among other areas. They are HEART-certified upon completion of the courses, which last between six and nine months.
Speaking with The Gleaner at the end of a youth empowerment seminar at the Steer Town Academy last week Thursday, Wilson-Smith said approximately 90 persons are being trained in the various areas.
She said the empowerment seminar was to further strengthen the participants.
“The purpose of the empowerment seminar is really to get the students to believe in themselves, to believe in their abilities to succeed and to do well,” Wilson-Smith explained.
“So we are here to really empower them to not give up but to stick it out and to finish and get their certification, also to motivate them because you have so many challenges that they’re facing, based on the communities that they are from and so forth.”
Over 50 persons turned out for the seminar, which featured an inspirational charge from Kevin Davis, founder of Institute of Advance Technology, and a presentation on financial empowerment from Khadene Dennis of Jamaica Money Market Brokers.
Davis traced his journey from being an underperforming primary-school student to one who took charge of his destiny, turned his life around and was able to attend college.
The youth also benefited from encouraging messages in greetings from councillor for the Lime Hall division, Genevor GordonBailey, principal of Steer Town Academy Omar Mongal, and Rudolph Cox from the Ministry of Education.
As a testament to the success of the programme, students in the cake-baking programme were tasked to provide refreshment for the occasion, and they did so with flying colours, both in terms of presentation and taste.
“A testament to the success of the programme is that catering is being done by the cake-baking students,” noted chairperson for the evening’s activity, Claudille Sydial.