Anguilla, which has an active Youth Entrepreneurship Programme, has been the host island this week for a Regional Youth Workshop in this particular area of youth development.
One of the results is that young people in Anguilla, and a number of other regional islands, have been able to exchange ideas on various Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) which they have been able to establish for themselves.
The workshop was part of the European Union-funded Caribbean Overseas Countries & Territories (OCT) Enterprises called “COSME”. The programme is managed by a German consultancy firm, GOPA, and was launched in Tortola in April 2014. The workshop was held at La Vue Boutique Hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday. It attracted participants from Aruba, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Montserrat, St. Eustatius, Trinidad and Turks & Caicos.
Mr. Bren Romney, Anguilla’s Director of Youth and Culture, in addressing the workshop participants, observed that young people in all the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) account for up to 60% of the populations combined. Secondly, he pointed out that youth unemployment ranged from 15-40% in the wider Caribbean region.
Mr. Romney stressed that “young people faced systemic barriers to starting and successfully managing a small or medium-size business.” He complained that “our education systems [in the region] are slow to embrace entrepreneurship as a viable path for sustainable livelihoods for our children. We are taught to work for others and not ourselves.” He was pleased, however, to note that this was slowly changing.
Ms. Diana Hendrickson-Fleming, one of the Tortola-based consultants, said it was decided that the programme should concentrate on the youth sector. “A lot of youngsters are coming out of school and are becoming unemployed,” she explained. “What we are trying to stimulate is that instead of they being unemployed, they can look at becoming self-employed. A lot of self-employment then develop into small businesses and after a while these small enterprises can employ other persons. This specific programme is related to setting up the structure for that [form of small business creation and employment].”
The main facilitator for the workshop was Dr. Marcia Brandon of Barbados who has extensive expertise in the youth entrepreneurship culture there. She was assisted by Ms. Carmen Gomez-Trigg, concerned with loan facility and guarantee for small and medium-size enterprises; and Diana Hendrickson-Fleming, the above-mentioned Team Leader.
The workshop sessions included an overview of the Youth Entrepreneurship Programme for SMEs; key findings from a situation analysis; and a presentation of a proposed best practice model for small and medium-size enterprises.
