Twenty young students and clients on Tuesday, this week, began six to twelve months of counselling and career guidance under the auspices of the Department of Youth and Culture. They attended a day-long orientation session at the Anguilla Community College.30
The programme is a component of the Job Education and Skill Development Initiative (JESDI). Its aim is to target young people who are considered to be vulnerable due to particular socio-economic factors which may prevent them from gaining employment.
Senior Programme Officer, Ms. Joylene Robin, outlined some of the provisions of the Job Link-Up Programme, now in its 8th year. “The programme targets young people who are between the age of 16 and 30 years old and they may have such challenges as non-completion of high school; teenage pregnancy; and low literary levels etc,” she explained. “We have a mixture of participants who are at the Workshop Initiative for Support in Education (WISE) and the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. There are young people who have completed school but are unemployed due to socio-economic factors in Anguilla.”
The Job Link-Up Programme is centrally managed by a Management Advisory Board, responsible for the regular evaluation of the programme. The representatives are drawn from the Ministry of Social Development and the business community. A Field Officer, in the person of Ms. Komeloy Murphy, is responsible for identifying appropriate work placements for selected participants. Her duties include the day-to-day monitoring of participants and liaising with employers, referral agencies and parents. According to Ms. Robin, there are eighteen business partners who are willing to find job placements for the participants when the time comes.
The main strategies of the programme are: Counselling/Career Guidance; Mentorship; Employment, Training and Coaching; Continued Education and Training; Personal and Professional Development Coaching; and Job Placement.
Director of Youth and Culture, Mr. Bren Romney, told the participants that their first objective should be to get to know the programme and what is required of them; and what opportunities are there for them. “Where you don’t understand the programme, ask questions. This is about you and your future and an opportunity that the Government has provided for you,” he stated.
Under the programme, participants with job placement opportunities are paid EC$1,000 per month – half paid by Government and the other half by employees. Mr. Romney advised the young people that the programme was not aimed at finding a job for them but rather preparing them for employment opportunities. He urged them to remain focussed and committed to the programme in order to succeed.
