The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) Group of Companies has joined the New Employment Opportunities (NEO) Jamaica Alliance aimed at increasing job entry among poor and vulnerable youth for a two-year period commencing this month.

NEO is a regional initiative across the Caribbean and Latin America that is led by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in partnership with businesses, governments and civil society which contribute resources, knowledge, and skills with a view to fostering sustainable employment. It aims to offer training and development to one million young people between the ages of 16 and 29 from across 12 countries before the year 2022.Under a recent agreement with the Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) Limited, which is the executing agency for the NEO Jamaica Alliance, the UCC Group will provide guidance and leadership of the project and will participate in the performance review of the annual operations plans.Chairman of the UCC Group Dr Winston Adams noted that UCC was the first private tertiary institution invited to join the NEO Jamaica Alliance, and he pledged the group’s support in empowering the nation’s disadvantaged youth.NEO was launched in 2012 at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, setting a target to improve the quality of the workforce and the employability of vulnerable young people in Latin America and the Caribbean. The MIF is joined by the International Youth Foundation and corporate partners including Arcos Dorados, Caterpillar, Cemex, Microsoft and Walmart in the resourcing of the initiative. It is a pioneering partnership in which businesses, governments and civil society