The National Training Project for Youth Empowerment (NTPYE) on Friday held a graduation ceremony at which 175 youths in Region Five received their certificates at the Belladrum Secondary School, West Coast Berbice,
signalling the end of training for 154 out of school youths and 21 single parents.
The activity was held under the theme “Reducing Youth Unemployment”, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said in a release.
The NTPYE is an initiative of President Bharrat Jagdeo and since the commencement of the programme in 2005, youths from the 10 administrative regions have benefited from training and through the Ministry of Labour’s Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency they have acquired jobs, GINA said.
The programme, under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) targets youths ranging from 15-25 years of age for training in areas such as mechanic, administrative, and pharmacy assistants and welding and fabrication.
And the single parent programme included catering, garment construction and information technology for 2009 and this year cosmetology and child care were implemented.
Co-ordinator of the project, Coreen Connelly, in her report noted that Region Five had an 87% completion record with 96 females and 58 males, whereas single parents recorded 100% completion.
BIT’s Chairman, Dr. Dale Bisnauth, who delivered the feature address, congratulated the graduates and noted that graduation was not the end of the road, but rather the beginning.
He stated that the NTPYE/BIT programme was intended to provide youths with a second chance for them to become educated and employable by providing them with skills and training.
Chief Executive Officer of BIT, Alana Brassington said that over 2000 youths would have undergone training under the NTPYE before year-end and 500 single parents would have graduated.
She encouraged the graduates to set goals and inculcate the right attitude and values to make themselves successful in the workplace.
On December 1, 53 Barticians graduated from programmes including child-care assistant, mechanic, welding and fabricating, cosmetology, butcher assistant, carpentry, nurse aide, lab assistant and physiotherapy assistant.
Of the 53 graduates, 29 completed training in the first half of the year while the remainder did so recently, GINA added.
