KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information through the Career Advancement Programme (CAP) has launched an initiative to help sixth form students gain access to a driver’s licence and/or a passport.

According to the ministry, this forms part of an overall objective to give access to labour market/industry-driven skills to students 16 to 18 years old for them to be more marketable for the world of work, continuous education, the global market, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The first phase of the project will account for approximately 2,663 students across the Education Ministry regions.

Special consideration, the ministry said, will be given to students on the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH).

The ministry said that it is hoped that all enrolled students of grades 12 and 13 will benefit for the 2019/20 academic school year.

The execution of the pilot for the driver’s licence will be aligned to students who are doing the following skill areas: Computer Servicing and Support – (Computer Repairs Technician), Warehousing & Distribution, Mechanical Maintenance, Auto Body Repairs and Motor Vehicle Repairs (Automotive Technology).

The passport pilot will be based on a selected subset within regions based on students who are doing the following skill areas: hospitality related courses, plumbing and welding skills based on the global demand of Jobs overseas.

The ministry added that the Passport Immigration & Citizenship Agency will implement the passport initiative in batches and will start the implementation of the programme March 12 to 31, across all six MoEYI regions in selected schools that are on the pilot.

The driver’s licence initiative implementation process will then follow during the week of March 25, through to June, 2019.