KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — More than 600 youth will receive valuable work experience and training through the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) Youth Summer Employment Programme (YSEP).

The programme, which starts officially on Monday, will initially last for four weeks, with a possible two week extension based on performance and completion of tasks.

The youth will be engaged in a critical aspect of nation-building, as the work will redound to the benefit of Jamaica as a whole. They will be paid a weekly stipend of $8500.

The participants who are between the ages of 17 to 24 will be involved in data collection and verification activities in: trade licence survey; street licence verification; vulnerability assessment in the area of disaster; assessment notices; billboards and signs survey; and barbers and hairdressers survey.

An orientation session for the participants was held at the Douglas Orane Auditorium at the Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Kingston, on August 10.

In his remarks, Mayor of Kingston, Senator Councillor Delroy Williams advised the youth that their involvement in the programme, is far beyond mere employment.

“It is very important that you, as summer employees who are part of this programme recognize that it is not just about being employed and earning much needed stipend, it is also that you begin to get an appreciation…of the work of the municipal corporation, and what we do as local government,” he said.

Williams also encouraged the youth to take full advantage of the opportunity and to contribute meaningfully to the Government’s mandate of making Kingston the premier city in the Caribbean.

“All our children and young people must develop skills and put them to use to grow your city and your country. That is how you become a major player and a prominent city in the region, the skills of the people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the KSAMC, Robert Hill told JIS News that the work to be done by the participants is critical for planning and nation building.

“The data that we want is absolutely critical to us, because we otherwise may not have the manpower to do all the verification on top of everything else that we have to do,” Hill said.

“This will now provide us with all that we need to ensure that once we have that data collected, we can pin point specific divisions, locations and businesses that are in need of updating and also for them to come in and register themselves properly,” he explained.

The YSEP is an initiative of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, and seeks to train and empower youth within their own geographic locales within communities across the 14 parishes of Jamaica. 

At the same time, the YSEP will improve the skills sets and the body of knowledge that you young people will garner over the period.

The programme aims to achieve: an improved streetlight programme; an improved emergency social assistance programme; a strong database of streetlight, street name signs; an enhanced database of vulnerable persons; and improved knowledge-base and skillsets of the youth employed to the programme.

It will be monitored by the municipal corporations, officers in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development and the Social Development Commission (SDC).