87 youth to be celebrated at PM’s award for excellence
EIGHTY-SEVEN shortlisted nominees will attend the Prime Minister’s National Youth Awards for Excellence (PMYA) scheduled for Saturday, November 30, on the lawns of Jamaica House.
The Prime Minister’s Youth Awards (PMYA) for excellence is the highest attainable award for young people in Jamaica.
Approximately 100 young people were nominated in the traditional 11 categories and 57 candidates were shortlisted. The recently added Nation Builder category, which celebrates the work of young people in community volunteerism and development, was subsequently added and of the 6o nominated 30 were shortlisted.
“Our prime minister and Government remain committed to celebrating and awarding the youth of Jamaica who continue to lead, inspire and transform Jamaica and the world by excelling in their respective fields. That is the very essence of the PMYA – to engage, empower and celebrate our youth,” said Alando Terrelonge, minister of state in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.
“As a Government, we view young people as our partners in nation-building. There can be no growth, development, peace, security, or prosperity, without youth at the table. The youth are not just leaders of tomorrow, they are the transformative force of today, upon whose shoulders our hope of advancing the welfare of Jamaica and the whole human race rests.”
The categories that fielded the most nominees for this year’s staging of the national youth awards are Arts and Culture, Sports, Leadership, Youth Development, Academics and Nation Builder.
Strides have been made in the categories of Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise, Innovation in Science and Technology and International Achievement while there has been an increase in nominations for Agriculture and Environmental Protection.
Introduced in 1998, the Prime Minister’s National Youth Awards for excellence was conceptualised to recognise young Jamaicans aged between 15 and 29. Since its inception, more than 300 awards have been conferred.
This year’s ceremony will be a three-hour celebration of talented young people being entertained by top acts within the local creative industry.
