Twenty-five persons living with disabilities graduated from the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s skills training programme recently, bringing the total number of graduates to 294 over the past 12 months, a release from the ministry has said.
A graduation ceremony was held at the soon to be completed Learning Lab, Training and Empowerment Centre which will be the designated home for persons living with disabilities to be trained and developed.
According to the release among the courses individuals from Regions Four and Five were trained in include JAWS (a computer screen reader programme that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen) and social media marketing.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, the release said, told the graduates, “The aim is to make persons living with disabilities a very valuable part of every aspect of development and we want you to go [on] and be part of the labour market, part of the workforce and we want you to have your dreams become a reality.” The minister noted, “While we were waiting on the facility, we didn’t wait to train so persons were trained across various regions, 294 of them, so we did the graduation for them in Regions Four and Five and we will be presenting the certificates to the others.”
Natasha Basdeo, one of the graduates said at the graduation, “I am proud of myself because I went through the computer course, and I have a certificate. I learnt a lot from the course, and I think it is a good thing the Ministry is doing. It is very good for me, and I improved a lot so this will help me to gain employment.” Another graduate, Hannah Joseph, explained, “It is very good that the ministry is doing so much for persons living with disabilities, it is very helpful to us. I want to thank the minister for all she is doing for us and I want to encourage all persons living with disabilities to take up the opportunity and get qualified.”
Meanwhile, Odessa Blair who completed the social media marketing course highlighted that the course was very informative, and said that she hopes that persons with disabilities will benefit from the training. “I believe the Ministry is doing a very good job and I have to say hats off to them for including persons with disabilities in their training and making us equipped to make an equal contribution in the world of work,” said Blair.