FLANKER, St James – Despite dropping out of school from an early age, illiterate and innumerate, 18-year-old Jerome Hines has made use of the opportunity to enrol in the Articulated Truck Driving Programme here at the Caribbean Military Technical Training Institute (CMTTI) Western Campus.

The programme is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of National Security, the Caribbean Military Academy, which is a tertiary institution of the Jamaica Defence Force; the HEART/NSTA Trust and the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU). The aim of the programme is to provide the participants with skill in truck driving but also to engender a disinclination to participate in undesirable activities.

“I just joined this programme because watch yah no, you see when me a grow as a little youth a come up… me drop out of school at an early age… Spot Valley High School and me never too hundred in the knowledge, but me never was fool though. So me join this programme after me hear about it and then me see sey it good to be on a programme like this to upgrade yourself and try to be a better man inna society,” the young Flanker native said.

In fact, Hines, who is among the first cohort of the 30 participants in the programme, which is funded to the tune of $20 million by Government, had a brush with the law two years ago which resulted in a two-year incarceration.

“When me was 16 years old me usually a sell drugs to guests at a hotel, marijuana. Police run after me a lot of times. More time me run lef them …escape them, but guess what? Me still never escape them all the time. More time them creep up pon me and hold me and carry me go jail. Police hold me a sell drugs to white people already and dem lock me up and me go court for it and judge sentence me; give me two years,” he shared.

“And you see when me go a jail them time deh, me couldn’t read or write and me tell myself sey the time me have in yah suh me a go use this yah time yah and try accomplish my education. So me work towards it. Everyday me read, me read and me can do maths [now].”

He finished serving time on his 18th birthdate, Thursday, January 7, and enrolled in the driving programme which started 14 days later, and scheduled for completion August 25. Upon successfully completing the programme, Hines will be rewarded with certification from the CMU and National Vocational Qualification Jamaica (NVQJ).

“What me plan to do is when me finish is try to work for a good company because me want to set myself because the way how me grow in life me grow one way like me short of a whole heap of things. Me don’t come see my father with certain things, me don’t come see my mother with certain things. When me get my youth them now come pon the earth them mustn’t short of things that me used to short of back in the time of my younger days. So, me have feh set meself suh when me get my youths them in the future, dem good,” Hines argued.

“So me want the youth them in my community to look at me as a different young man because me ever want tell myself sey, yow, me want people fi look pon me different, because me know sey me can make people look pon me different.”

Addressing the first cohort of participants at a function at the CMTTI Western Campus in Flanker last week, Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said the idea of the programme was hatched some 15 years ago in a response to the then crime surge in St James.

Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister and Member of Parliament for St James North Western, recounted that after a house-to-house survey it was discovered that 78 per cent of the boys dropped out of school in grade nine. It was then that the long and arduous journey of developing a programme which was attractive to boys started.

“We did the survey and identified that 78 per cent of our young men dropped out of school at grade nine and therefore were functionally illiterate and innumerate. That was 15 years ago. At the time we looked at the feasibility of what we could do to attract the young men. We prepared a programme to develop a project to orient our engagement in training of young males in particular,” Dr Chang reminisced.

“We looked at what could be done to provide a productive engagement for the young men to get them trained in some productive skills and at the same time impact on their character. Among the things proposed were of course property management and truck driving, which of course attracted young men.

“So for me, today is a particular satisfaction and pleasure to join you. And I want to particularly commend the team in the ministry.”

Major G A Grant, who disclosed that “the course will be 40 per cent simulation and 60 per cent practical”, noted that the objective of the programme is to prepare individuals to apply technical skills and knowledge to drive articulated and combination vehicles to include trailers, buses, delivery vehicles, for hire vehicles and other commercial vehicles.

“The course is also geared at providing participants with the requisite employability skills required to compete in the global workforce,” noted Major Grant.

In his remarks, president of the CMA, Brigadier Ralph Mason, gave the JDF’s commitment “towards youth engagement and youth development”.

“I believe that it is really stating the obvious — that it is an investment in the youth positive engagement that is the truly sustainable way to approach the challenges that we have with this cohort of the population. Most of the challenges that we face in the society today the age range extends from 15 to 24 years old. And these are persons who are vulnerable in the respective communities and ultimately become engaged in activities which lead to violence and crime in the respective communities,” Brigadier Mason argued.