BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — This week 60 youths from across the island will learn about ICT and entrepreneurship as part of the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Vybzing Youth Forum.

Organisers are expecting the three-day interactive workshop, which start today at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, is expected to educate and equip the young people with the knowledge and skills that enable them to apply information and communication technologies to leverage and create opportunities which have a positive impact to transform the cultural, economic, social and educational lives of the young people and their communities.

The interactive workshop, themed “Beam me up with ICTS,” is hosted by the CDB in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, and delivered by a team of facilitators from the Caribbean Science Foundation.

Over the course of the three days, the participants will receive training and project development advice with the goal of having them think creatively to develop business ideas that can change their lives and their communities.

“The participants will learn the importance and relevance of innovative, viable business and social entrepreneurship to society, how to identify and overcome potential obstacles and challenges in order to take advantage of opportunities and how to take ideas from mind to market. The workshop will provide them with hands-on experience with hardware and software to access necessary information and materials as well as coaching on how to pitch ideas to a team of experts and get invaluable feedback for their business ideas,” the CDB said.

“The Vybzing Youth Forum is a platform for youth engagement and empowerment and seeks to promote youth-led initiatives, implement community-based interventions and to build formal and informal networks that foster co-operation and knowledge sharing in support of regional development and integration,” said Angella Parris, vybzing coordinator and the CDB’s informations services unit manager.

The Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF) team for the forum will be led by Professor Cardinale Warde, president of the Caribbean Diaspora for Science, Technology and Innovation, and a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The team of workshop facilitators includes Jeremy Stephen, who has extensive experience in venture capitalism and private entity in the Caribbean region and internationally; David Thorpe, software development specialist from Maryland, USA; and Jamaican Ayanna Samuels, an ICT professional who has worked on multi-country development projects with management and financial oversight responsibilities.

The CSF is a non-profit organisation established in 2010 by the Caribbean Diaspora for Science, Technology and Innovation (CADSTI) whose primary function is to assist with the diversification of the economies of the Caribbean region by harnessing science and technology for economic development and to help raise the standard of living.

The CDB’s Vybzing Programme aims at combating the threatening socio-economic costs of high youth unemployment by emphasising the importance of expanding opportunities for them to be productive and purposive citizens. The CDB’s focus is on reducing the alarmingly increasing rate of youth unemployment through knowledge building initiatives such as vybzing.

In the report titled, “Youth Are The Future Sustainable Development In The Caribbean 2015”, the CDB revealed that the average youth unemployment rate for countries in the Caribbean region with available data was nearly 25 per cent in 2013, compared with the adult rate of only eight per cent. “Therefore, it is imperative that today’s youth play more of a significant and fundamental role in advancing Caribbean development and securing a sustainable future for the next generation,” said the CDB.