MONTEGO BAY, St James — Member of Parliament for St James South, Derrick Kellier, has hailed the HEART Trust/NTA for the significant role it has played in providing training for participants in the Community Training for Empowerment Programme (CTEP), which he initiated in 2004 for his unskilled constituents.

“I want to use the occasion to pay credence to the HEART/Trust NTA for their invaluable support that they have given to this programme since its inception. Without HEART/Trust we couldn’t have done it. It is as simple as that. And we want to transmit our deep appreciation for the support that the HEART /Trust has given to us here in St James,” Kellier said.

He was speaking at the graduation ceremony for the cohort of 89 trainees held at the Wexford Hotel in Montego Bay recently.

Kellier, who is also the minister of agriculture and fisheries, reflected that CTEP was born out of the need to provide certification for unskilled members of his constituency.

“This programme started a couple years aback when we looked at the landscape of the area where we have responsibility for. We did a survey to inform us as to what was the most necessary thing to do to help people who were unemployed and unskilled. And we came up with the idea because most of the persons were unskilled, particularly young women who had dropped out of school at the time,” said Kellier, who has been MP for the St James South constituency since 1989.

Under the programme, a portion of Kellier’s Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is used to pay half the cost of the classes which run for six months— held once per week inside the Maldon Baptist Church Hall and the Cambridge Community Centre — while the students are required to pay the remainder.

Over the years, a number of CTEP graduates have found employment at hotels, both locally and internationally.

The programme is coordinated by Claudette Glegg.