MEMBER of Parliament for Kingston east and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell is warning young people in his constituency that those who fail to take advantage of the training opportunities provided by the HEART Academy in Rockfort will not get a shot at the small business loans which will be available as of January next year.

“Under this year’s CDF (Constituency Development Fund), we do have an amount that we are placing with the Jamaica Business Development Centre, and persons who qualify can access loans but they must subject themselves to a training component of the programme and must have a business plan that shows a viable business,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The amount is $3 million on a revolving basis.

“I want to say to them that unless they take advantage of the opportunities they will not be able to provide for themselves and their families,” he said.

The People’s National Party MP was addressing concerns raised by his constituents when the Sunday Observer toured the communities last week.

Among the concerns, some young people complained about not being able to secure jobs. However, Paulwell said the problem was that many of them had refused to avail themselves of the training provided.

“Rockfort HEART has gone, at our insistence, into the communities with flyers encouraging all the people who don’t have training, to attend. But I daresay that most of the efforts have not borne fruit because most of them are not responding, and what we have said to them is that unless they have certification they will not get employment,” he said.

Paulwell said the Cement Company, for example, trained about 300 young people from the Rockfort community four years ago and subsequently employed roughly 250. Some of them have now been sent home given the company export woes and the global recession.

“Those who don’t respond, even though the Rockfort HEART does provide a stipend in terms of lunch and so on, are those who are in need of other types of interventions but there are no longer any resources that the State will have to deal with people who are unskilled and who are just waiting to get contracts to do government projects. All the projects we do in the constituency require some level of skill and I am urging them to take advantage of the training institution right in their backyard.”

Among the education/training projects on which Paulwell has divided the CDF is building and expanding computer labs in schools and sponsoring a reading programme. He has also given back-to-school assistance, and has invested in a learn to swim programme.

In the 2008-2009 financial year, he spent $2.5m on education projects; $2m on welfare; $1m on sport development; $1m on economic development; $3.1m on Christmas work; $2m on disaster mitigation; $1.5m for the re-establishment of the post office in Port Royal; and $2m on housing assistance.

Speaking of housing, Paulwell accepts that Port Royal is overcrowded and needs new housing solutions but says he does not support informal development. Instead, he said residents should wait until the Housing Agency of Jamaica — which has taken over the projects of the former NHDC/Operation Pride — grants permission, once again, for the 47 solutions to be built on lands already earmarked in the seaside community.

“I have to concede that the people have been waiting for some time and that the project has been put on hold,” he said, before explaining that the closeness of the groundwater to the surface in Port Royal is at the centre of the delay. However, the MP said he was not aware that notice to vacate had been issued on the people Tuesday.

“Nobody has said a word to me about receiving notice. Still, I do not support squatting and that has been our position all along. The place has to be developed in an orderly way. Once the scheme is finished then we will go to Michelin,” said Paulwell.

With regard to the development of areas like Harbour Heights, Wareika Hill and Windward Court, he said: “These were projects under the former Operation Pride/NHDC scheme. As with Port Royal, as with Windward Court, and also Pleasant Heights, which is Wareika Hill, I will continue to make representation for the basic infrastructure on behalf of the people.”

By January Wareika Hill should have running water, he said, as the Hampstead Well in the area is set to be rehabilitated.