[Updated with photo gallery] 642 graduate from Youth Development Division, Adult Education Division and Skills for Youth Employment (SKYE) program

The ceremony took place at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium this week. It was a joint graduation ceremony of the Skills for Economic Growth project.

Chief Youth Development Officer, John Roach said this graduation represents four decades of social and economic empowerment of Dominican youth.

“The 49th Graduation Ceremony of the Youth Skills Training Program represents four decades of social and economic empowerment of Dominican youth through this timely and efficiently-managed facility which has become a household name in Dominica,” he said at the ceremony.

“The resumption of the Youth Development Division’s programs, following the passage of Hurricane Maria was a major challenge, particularly for the Youth Skills Training and the Youth Centre Life Skills Programs. This was mainly due to the destruction of the division’s training facilities in Marigot, Delices, Portsmouth, Roseau, Castle Bruce, and Grand Bay.”

Roach stated that these programs suffered a further setback by the COVID-19 Global Pandemic, during which the programs were suspended.

He expressed appreciation to SKYE for the contribution of US$2,000 for the procurement of safety masks, automatic hand sanitizers, and infrared thermometers to facilitate the safe resumption of the programs.

“We are also grateful for the extension of the project, and for the additional financial resources allocated to train an additional 110 young Dominicans,” he added.

“As the SKYE project culminates at the end of March 2023, I proudly report that even with the challenges encountered, we have surpassed our target of 360 under the SKYE project, and have successfully trained 372 young Dominicans 16 to 30 years old.”

He was also elated to report the resumption of the Computer Literacy module at the Castle Bruce Youth Enterprise Centre, following its renovation by the young men and young women of the east, under the Youth Skills Training Program, with funding from the Citizenship by Investment Program and from the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) under the SKYE project.

While the Division focuses on technical skill development and enterprise promotion, Roach stated much emphasis is placed on the holistic formation of our young people.

“We recognize the importance of life skills and soft skills such as self-esteem, leadership development, citizenship, remedial literacy and numeracy, health and family life education, office etiquette, social & business skills; and more recently conflict mitigation, peer mediation, buddy system, anger & stress management were incorporated into the package.”

The chief youth development officer noted that this holistic approach to youth development is what separates the Youth Skills Training Program from other such initiatives.

“The Division continues to place much focus on the 40-year-old Youth Skills Training Program as its flagship program. In order to make an informed assessment of the situation of the youth who have been trained under the Youth Skills Training Program, the Youth Development Division conducts periodic tracer studies.”

He added that this is one of the instruments used to guide the service delivery strategy of the Division and it provides relevant data on the impact of the program, particularly on the graduates’ employment status following completion of the program.

“During the past forty years 8,786 Dominicans have been trained in almost 100 different disciplines under the Youth Skills Training Program; at an average of 220 trained per annum,” he revealed.

“The most recent tracer study conducted on the Youth Skills Training Program for the period June 2017 to September 2021, indicated that from 298 graduates traced (129 males and 169 females), 172 graduates were employed following completion of their respective training programs. This represents 58% employment generation upon completion of training.”

Given the level of competition from other training providers; and the realities of the work environment, he said it is evident that the Youth Skills Training Program has, and continues to make the desired impact on the social and economic empowerment of our young men and young women in Dominica.