United States Ambassador to Jamaica N Nick Perry has applauded the success of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Advance Experience Program, which ended on Thursday.

“The United States is proud that Advance could support just such an effort. We look forward to seeing the higher education institutions continue to collaborate with the private sector, evolve to meet industry demand, and ensure that Jamaica’s youth have the skills they need to succeed in the modern workforce,” the Jamaican-born ambassador told dozens of students attending the function at Jamaica Pegasus, New Kingston.

He was supported by Kirsten Galisson, regional director for the Advance Program, who underscored how valuable private sector intervention had been instrumental in the success of the local participants, in terms of obtaining experience and even providing employment opportunities.

The Advance Program is a workforce development initiative created to strengthen the capacity of select two-three-year tertiary education programmes in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and Jamaica. It brings partnership-select local tertiary institutions in to provide market-relevant training to disadvantaged youth as well as for increased employment.

The programme is funded by USAID and implemented by FHI360, a non-profit human development organisation “dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions”. The Jamaican partners were the Council of Community Colleges (CCCJ) of Jamaica; the Vocational Training Development Institute (VTDI); and the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech).

In each of the focused countries, Advance’s stakeholders are engaged from the education and private sectors to make technical training programmes more relevant and appealing to the market-based workforce’s needs.

The programme’s theory of change and overall approach are based on a ‘Reach Back, Reach Out and Reach In’ policy: reach back to upper secondary-aged youth in the participating countries to help them understand their post-secondary choices; reach out to technical training institutions to build their capacity in specific programmes and services; and reach in into the four countries to better understand the workforce needs and how these needs align with technical education programmes.

Ambassador Perry also noted the interest and support shown by Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Wiliams in the early fermenting of the project. Statements from both Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Pearnel Charles Jr and Williams were relayed to the audience as they were both involved in other engagements. The event was a collaboration between the CCCJ, UTech, and VTDI.

Williams, in airing her appreciation, commended the Advance Program for contributing to assisting the teachers and pre-service teachers.

“Jamaica has been a grateful recipient of USAID interventions over these years,” Williams said.

“The bond between our governments and its people has grown significantly and Jamaica commits to being a dependable ally as we work with agencies like USAID to improve the educational outcomes and standard of living of our people,” she said.

With USAID support, the partnerships yielded six new and revised associate degree programmes based on labour market intelligence; distributed over 200 scholarships to disadvantaged youth; and established four learning labs and resource centres.

Advance also fostered partnerships between the partner schools and the private sector and implemented customised school-to-work transition activities to help prepare students for the world of work, as well as advance partnership with higher educational institutions to deliver market-relevant skills to disadvantaged youth.

In Jamaica, Advance focused on the agri-business, health and wellness tourism, and creative industries, and worked with its partners to develop technical and employability skills among youth. In addition to curriculum work, Advance also supported the partner institutions in professional development, social and emotional learning, as well as custom recruitment and access activities to serve youth from diverse backgrounds.

As the programme drew to a close, partner institutions were considered well-positioned to build on the resources they had developed, the technical programmess provided, and the learning labs established to further expand technical industry-driven training options to youth across Jamaica.

Host of the function was Kerry-Ann Henry. Other speakers included Ruth Chisholm, country programme director, and director of global education Julee Allen.

Advance is funded by USAID and implemented by FHI 360. It has extensive information on its website www.advanceprogram.org.