First Job Start Plus participants complete training

It was all smiles for the first set of graduands who completed Job Start Plus, the National First Job Initiative, developed by the The Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations.

Over 35 young people gathered at the Warrens Office Complex last Friday to receive their certificates and officially complete the training. Through Job Start Plus, the Ministry sought to provide young people (15-24 years), not in employment, education or training, with a year of first time employment to gain work experience and to better position them for future employment opportunities after the programme.

Speaking to the young participants was Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relationships Colin Jordan. The Minister lauded the graduands for their success and said that being part of the program was a sign of commitment.

“Whatever your past was, whether academic success or academic failure or frustration for applying for jobs and not getting responses, whatever the experiences were that you came into this room with, your presence indicated to us that you are making a commitment to move forward positively.”

Minister Jordan also reminded the newly certified crop that moving forward was not always in a straight line.

“Moving forward is never a straight line because we are human beings and we live in a world where things happen, things go wrong from time to time. A lot of what you have been learning over the last two weeks, that teaching and coaching was meant to assist you in navigating because life is never a straight line.”

Besides the job placements, the programme also facilitated the development of these young people through the interventions such as mandatory career counselling, mandatory World of Work training, mandatory Citizen Education and National Service involving training in civics that addresses citizenship-related topics such as the system of government in Barbados, principles of human rights, freedom and democracy and the promotion of community and family values and civic responsibility.

Also involved was Psycho-social counselling, which was provided by a skilled professional made available to placements that required assistance in addressing emotional, situational, and developmental stressors and in developing the individual’s coping skills. The goal of the programme is to reduce identified risk factors to achieve positive outcomes from placements under Job Start Plus.

Aptitude Testing and Literacy and numeracy skills training will be done and will be targeted at young people with no certification and made available for those who demonstrate the need for such training during the assessment and career planning phases of Job Start Plus. The push to help academically included Certified Second Chance Education and Training that will be made available to participants with no certification to earn qualifications that will enhance their competitiveness in the labour market.

The target is 3 500 young persons and will include school leavers, unattached young people. Job Start Plus is to be the flagship initiative of an overall Youth Employment Programme that would seek to increase youth employment, certification among the young people, to create multiple pathways for youth employment and to solidify efforts at improving a school-to-work transition system.