‘Highlight the positive’

BIMAP, Executive Director, Sonia Greenidge-Franklyn has made a call for Barbadians to highlight positive young people in Barbados.

She made this plea recently while speaking to The Barbados Advocate at the closing of the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity’s (BIMAP’s) three week Animation camp, held in the only outfitted animation lab in Barbados furnished by the BIDC in Harbour Industrial Park.

The BIMAP official indicated, “There are so many positive young people in our society. We had twelve young children ranging from [ages] 12-17 and security guards reported no incidents. We were impressed with the group of students at the camp and what is clear with these students is that their parents are involved in their development. The children were excited, participated fully, attended every session and were well-behaved. There are so many positive young people, and we need to highlight our positive, and those that are negative we need to help them. We need to create avenues for young people and that is what we have done with the animation camp, as they are interested in the non-traditional creative areas.”

Franklyn stressed, “The importance of the animation industry to Barbados is that it is a rapidly growing industry. The Government is also trying to grow out the industry because it is important to diversify and create employment for young people. Young persons are already so tech savvy and if we can get them interested at an early age it is important.

“BIMAP is also offering a programme in “Introduction to Animation” and also the other modules in full detail. Animation can be an industry that can drive the economy because there are so many opportunities in this field. People are using animation more and it is a global industry. You can stay right here in Barbados and sell in many other markets and thus we can earn a large amount of foreign exchange.

“In terms of the struggling economy in Barbados, BIMAP’s mission is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of management and our focus is on workforce development. When the economy is not doing as good as you would like, and when there is attrition, people need to upscale and retool for new jobs – thus education will always be important, as technology changes people’s need to retool themselves, so BIMAP has to ensure we are always in a position to allow people to stay ahead.

There has been a decline in some aspects because companies don’t have money to pay for employees but people are taking the initiative.” (NB)