Twenty-two young people are the latest to have been enrolled in a programme of training under the Climate Smart Agriculture and Rural Enterprise Programme (SAEP) being coordinated through the Grenada National Training Agency. The twenty-two will be engaged over the next nine months in TVET training which will lead to a CVQ level 2 in Allied Health -Health Care Assistance (Patient Care) qualification. The training will include classroom theoretical and practical sessions and a three-month traineeship.
During the Orientation exercise held at the La Boucan Creative Centre, which are the training providers for the programme, GNTA’s. Training Support Coordinator, Marlene Finlay, impressed on the trainees to see the experience as an opportunity to increase their marketability throughout Grenada and the region. Finlay also told them to encourage each other and to see the programme as a continuation of life-long learning. She asked them to set high goals for themselves and to devise plans to achieve them. Finlay also reminded the participants that they had been given a training scholarship and that to whom much is given much is expected.
Meanwhile, Byron Campbell, Programme Manager for SAEP reminded the trainees that they were in a lucrative area of training as there was a high demand for health care support. He reminded the participants that the bottom-line of undertaking the training was to learn a skill, find employment and build a career. Campbell however expressed concern about the absence of male participation in much of the training being offered. No males are registered in the current programme.
A motivational address was delivered by David Andrew, Head of the Student Support Service Unit of the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development and Religious Affairs. Andrew stressed to his captive audience that anything worth doing is worth doing well; that they are what they think and if they think they can do something, they will do it.
The six-year SAEP programme which is a government project is aimed at reducing poverty by increasing income flow in rural communities. It intends to address two vulnerabilities: high youth unemployment and the high exposure of agricultural production to climate variability.
In this regard, the project has included vocational skills training to build capacity in unemployed and underemployed youth between the ages of 16 and 35.
The GNTA is expected to certify all persons trained under the Programme with CVQ/NVQ Level 2 certification as well as provide assessment and certification to 60 skilled but uncertified workers.
