IN response to the urgent need for more skilled workers to fill jobs that have and will be created by the rapid economic and community development, the Rotary Club of Kingston East & Port Royal is currently preparing young people of St Thomas for the workforce.

The project, known as the St Thomas Tourism Skills Ready Project, will see dozens of the youth acquiring skills primarily for the tourism sector. The project is funded through a global grant from the Rotary International Foundation and is supported by international partners the Rotary Club of Taipei Northeast, Taiwan.

Through a strategic partnership with HEART/NSTA Trust, the training includes administrative assistant and housekeeping, while the trainees also receive financial literacy and customer care coaching from subject matter experts in the club. The project falls under the Rotary-focused area of community economic development, which is about creating sustainable solutions to poverty and improving the livelihoods of communities.

Working in partnership with TeenHub, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Special Employment Unit and Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), the club recently completed a cohort of training with the youth. Those young people were trained for employment as tour guides, customer care representatives, and front line roles in the hospitality sector.

To date, 45 community members have been trained in four cohorts between May and October 2025.

According to Roy Reynolds, president of the Rotary Club of Kingston East & Port Royal, there is a gap in St Thomas between the current workforce skills and competencies that is needed for the success of organisations in the hospitality industry.

“We are bridging that skills gap and giving the community members an opportunity to be competitive in the labour market,” he said.

The club is working closely with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s Special Employment Unit to facilitate job placements in the relevant areas of training.

The training programme is the brainchild of immediate past president Melissa Anderson, who is of the view that St Thomas has historically been underserved in workforce development opportunities. However, she said as the parish begins to be positioned for growth through investment projects, the training programme was introduced to offer new economic opportunities for residents.

“After conducting the community impact assessment and meeting members of the community of St Thomas, it was clear that there is so much untapped potential in the people and it was not that they lacked the aspiration, but rather access to opportunities,” Anderson said.