The national chapter of the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) along with its business labs workshops was launched on Monday with a mandate to encourage young people to create employment through entrepreneurship.
The launching and workshop took place at the Ocean View Convention Centre in the presence of a large gathering of young business people, government officials and members of the Diplomatic Corps.
The launching of the national chapter in Guyana will bring together a sustainable national partnership of enterprising, energetic young people who can offer the best opportunity for building the hemispheric region.
Speaking at the launching, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony said that government will support the programme and already has in place projects with a similar aim. He said that many of his ministry’s and government’s projects aim towards building entrepreneurial and other life skills in young people, including those who would have dropped out of the formal education system.
He said that the programme should not be centralised and should be spread around the country since about 71 per cent of youths reside outside of urban areas. He encouraged young people to remain in Guyana after they have received their education so that their skills and knowledge could be used to create jobs which would help Guyana’s economy.
Assistant Secretary Gen-eral of the Organisation of American States Ambassador Albert Ramdin said that the most important assets of any country are its human resources – its people. He said that there must be something wrong with the way things are being done as young people not only in Guyana but in other OAS states feel left out of the mainstream decision-making processes.
He said that the YABT isn’t going to solve all of the country’s problems, but it will be a start. “It is in the interest of the private sector to support this programme since they would be the ones to benefit from skilled young workers,” Ramdin said.
The initiative represents an investment that will enable young people of the region to cement their business future by becoming ready to confront the evolving opportunities and challenges of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
YABT is a non-governmental organisation with affiliate status with the Organisation of American States and is headquartered in the Secretariat of the OAS in Washington DC. Through the YABT, the OAS makes a contribution to the development of policies and programmes for education, work and entrepreneurial skills development in the hemisphere.
The organisation seeks to serve as an ongoing high level policy dialogue and to work with the member states and public and private sector institutions in developing education for work and entrepreneurship as a public policy priority.
It seeks also to foster exchanges of information and experiences so that countries can learn and benefit from each other’s experience, best practices, and expertise through seminars, conferences, internships, study tours and internet technology.
The organisation hopes to work with member states and institutions to formulate strategic plans to design, operate and evaluate innovative projects and mobilise resources for successful programmes based on proven methodologies.
The YABT promotes entrepreneurship for young people in the Americas through innovative programmes on leadership development, training, technology and strategic alliances. YABT acts as a catalyst to create employment for young people for themselves and others through small businesses. The YABT works both with governments and private sector organisations in the OAS member states.
According to YABT Guyana Inc, the business labs programme will help young people develop their entrepreneurial spirit and basic skills in starting a small business through an initial short, intensive, hands-on workshop, which took place yesterday.
“The long-term goal is to give governments and local organisations an effective strategy to help create employment opportunities for young people in their communities,” the YABT Guyana Chapter said.
