WESTERN BUREAU — Sandals Montego Bay Resort last week launched a programme in which hundreds of young people from the nearby Flankers community will be trained in various skills over the next few years.

Training will last for three months and will take place at the resort in batches of 15.

Under the programme, which has been dubbed the Sandals/Flankers Training and Recruitment Tier (START), the participants will be trained in the areas of maintenance, housekeeping, watersports, as well as in the food and beverage department.

At the end of each three-month training period, the participants will be certified and a new batch taken on.

According to the resort’s general manager, Horace Peterkin, at the end of the training period the participants would be absorbed in the workforce at Sandals, if vacancies exist.

“But if vacancies do not exist at the Sandals resorts the certification that they will receive will allow them to be interviewed for jobs in other hotels, cruise ships and the overseas exchange programme,” Peterkin, who spoke at the launch, added.

He said the idea for the programme came about after the recent upheavals in the Flankers community following the police’s shooting of two elderly men there.

“In looking at the Flankers community we realised that a number of the youths there are untrained and that the community was in need of a training centre. This centre can be established, but at significant costs; so we at Sandals thought about the idea and decided that we would train the youngsters here at the hotel,” Peterkin explained.

President of the Flankers Citizens’ Association, Marilyn Nash, who was also present at the launch, praised Sandals for its “bold initiative” and pledged the community’s support for the programme.

Noting that at least 70 per cent of the 5,000 young people in the community are unemployed, Neish said the programme would give the youngsters in the area the opportunity to become productive.