A total of 4,516 students from secondary and tertiary institutions across the island were temporarily added to the workforce this summer, through the National Youth Service’s (NYS) summer employment programme.

NYS director, Rev Adinhair Jones, told JIS News that the young people were employed to government and private sector agencies for three weeks during July and August. He said they performed various tasks including clerical work, data entry and filing, and participated in environmental projects, such as beach-cleaning in Pagee, St Mary.

A sum of $36.1 million was spent to pay the students’ salaries of between $2,500 and $3,000 per week, the NYS director said.

The summer employment programme was introduced by Prime Minister PJ Patterson in 2000, and is designed to assist students with back-to-school expenses, while introducing them to the work world.

The NYS also offers a training component and according to Rev Jones, 276 young persons recently completed training in early childhood education. Upon graduation, he said, they would be employed as teacher-aides in day care centres as well as basic and primary schools up to grade three.

A number of the graduates, he added, would become roving caregivers, providing home-based support to mothers who work outside of the home.

“All of this is to effect early stimulation for the children so that their own awareness and growth could be assisted,” he said.

Rev Jones added that this month, a batch of 300 trainees would be enrolled in a one-month programme for clerical administration at Cobbla in Spaulding, Clarendon. At the end of the programme, 75 per cent of the participants would be placed in government agencies, with the remaining 25 per cent employed to the private sector.

“We are now enlisting volunteers at the parish level to work in education, promotions in terms of lifestyle issues, peace development in terms of areas seen as dangerous, and in mentoring,” he explained.

He said persons with these skills and who wished to be involved in the programme could apply.

Meanwhile, Rev Jones told JIS News that the NYS was behind in its training schedule compared to last year and to attract more youngsters, a series of Youth Opportunity Fairs were being staged island wide.

“They bring together young people, aged 17-29, who are not in school and who are not working,” he said, pointing out that the fairs were designed to showcase the training and job opportunities provided by the NYS and other state agencies.

Approximately 30,000 youngsters are being targeted under the programme, which started in August and is slated for completion by March 2004. Already, fairs have been held in St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Portland.

Rev Jones explained that at these events, the youngsters were first assessed to ascertain their competence and for the NYS to determine how it could best meet their needs. Based on their requirements, they are given the option of joining the NYS, to seek vocational training with the HEART/NTA, or any other training institution, or attend the Jamaica Business Development Centre for entrepreneurial training.