The Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE) programme was launched in Grenada on Tuesday, 26 February at a reception held at the Spice Basket in Beaulieu, St George.
SkYE is a four-year programme valued at £9.1 million designed to promote economic growth and sustainable development in four East Caribbean states including St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. The project is funded by UKAID and managed by Mott MacDonald Ltd of the UK.
It is focused on improving the occupational skills and employability of youth aged 15-30 years to enable them to find jobs or be promoted to higher levels within existing jobs. The programme has three distinct components: Component one is expected to support high quality training in sectors which show prospects for economic growth, job creation, and career progression, while Component two will support basic work readiness training for disadvantaged young people, including those with disabilities and Component three will provide targeted capacity building and other support to improve national and sub-regional training systems in the four participating countries.
Speaking at the launch, Minister with Responsibility for Tertiary Education, Skills Development and Education Outreach in the Ministry of Education, Pamela Moses said she expected the programme to transform the lives of the young people it touches. She welcomed what she sees is a great opportunity to improve the quality and sustainability of technical and vocational education and training.
The UK government’s representative, Terry Brathwaite, Senior Programme Officer at the Department for International Development Caribbean, said he was heartened by the cross-country sharing of ideas and concepts in the development, design and implementation of the project.
A total of 6000 young people is expected to receive training over the duration of SkYE. Some of this training will take place in the Hospitality, Construction and emerging markets such as Renewable Energy, IT and Agro-Processing.
The National Training Agency is collaborating with Mott MacDonald as a technical partner for the implementation of the programme in Grenada and will also provide all certification for training carried out.
Programme implementation began on March 1st, 2019.
