Over 100 Soufriere youth to be trained In Culinary Skills, Housekeeping and Bartending
Over 100 young, unemployed Soufriere residents will benefit from three to four months of skills training in the next few months. The project, the brainchild of the Soufriere Foundation Training Department and National Skills Development Centre, will commence in mid-August and is one of the two organisations responses to the high level of youth unemployment within the Soufriere area.
Over the last two months, the National Skills Development Centre and the Soufriere Foundation have been discussing areas of mutual interest to both parties. Arising out of these discussions was an agreement to work together to provide training to young persons of Soufriere and the nearby communities. During the first phase of the collaboration training, will be provided in Culinary Skills, Housekeeping and Bartending. The selected areas of training are in keeping with the priority areas established by the business sector as requiring qualified staff.
At the end of the training exercise each successful participant will be attached to a local establishment for a one-month internship and then provided with a regionally accepted, Tech Voc certificate. Attainment of a Tech Voc certificate at a particular level demonstrates a mastery of a clearly identified number of skills at that level. Tech Voc certificates are regionally accredited and accepted as a skills-based workplace qualification.
In an address to students of the Soufriere Foundation run, Venezuelan Institute endorsed, Spanish language training course, Dominic Alexander, General Manager of the Soufriere Foundation, when informing the participants of the organisation’s training initiatives indicated that, “With a Caribbean Development Bank reported poverty rate of 42.4%, little effort will be spared by the Soufriere Foundation to train and create or support the creation of economic and employment opportunities for the young persons of Soufriere.” “We will go beyond providing training and an internship, we will also start up an employment registry where we can advertise our trainees to potential employers and potential employers can also advertise their human resource needs. This is a pioneering activity for us, which we are confident will bring untold benefits to the community”, he added.
The Soufriere Foundation is presently attempting to twin the Soufriere Primary School and Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School with sister institutions in the United States. In addition, the organisation is discussing with Slippery Rock University, Pittsburg, USA, the possibility of subsidising annually the cost of university education for at least two (2) St. Lucian students, by allowing them to pay instate tuition fees instead of the costly international student fees.
