Some 300 Berbice youths to benefit from Tech/Vocational Training

DPI, Guyana, Friday, September 22, 2017

More than two hundred and seventy (270) at-risk youths in the county of Berbice are set to receive skills training over the next nine months. The occasion was the launching of the Berbice component of the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP,) which seeks to empower at-risk youths between the ages of 16 and 25 years. The event was hosted at the Rose Hall Community Centre in Canje, Berbice.

The forty-five trainees were selected from six communities respectively; Angoy’s Avenue, Adelphi/Mansfield, Rosignol, Albion/Fyrish, Rosehall/Port Morant, Kildonan/Friendship

The project is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank at a cost of US$15M.  Component One seeks to reduce crime and violence at the community level. The project is intended to attract more than 900 youths from twenty communities in Regions One, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10, yearly. The youths will receive technical and vocational training which will lead to the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) Level one certification or its equivalent, job readiness, entrepreneurship and business management training.

With the establishment of Community Action Councils, the programme also aims to provide psycho-social support through structured sessions to deal with mentoring and guidance, parenting and gender-based violence prevention, public awareness, conflict resolution, and interpersonal violence prevention at the community level.

Additionally, the selected communities will be beneficiaries of millions of dollars to be invested in the creation of youth-friendly infrastructural “rapid impact” projects and community resource mapping exercises.

3^rd Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, during his feature address, told attendees that Government recognizes the importance of skills and job-readiness training in creating economic opportunities for youths and lessening their vulnerability to the allure of crime.

Further, Minister Ramjattan said, through the CSSP “We intend to break the vicious cycle of arrest, trial, and incarceration through rehabilitation and reintegration programmes in keeping with international best practices”.

The project, which is expected to last until 2020, also has two other components aimed at Strengthening the Guyana Police Force Crime Prevention and Investigation Capacity and Strengthening Guyana Prison Service Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Services-  to prevent recidivism.

It is being implemented by the Ministry of Public Security, Project Implementation Unit (PIU), headed by Clement Henry and managed by IADB, through direct supervision.

 

By: Kidackie Amsterdam