Youth Skills Training Program hosts ‘Open Day’

The day allowed participants to showcase their skills

The public was able to gain knowledge and get a little pampering as the Skills Training Program (STP) under the Dominica Youth Development Division (YDD) hosts its ‘Open Day’ on Thursday.

The skills of young men and women who have acquired or deepened their knowledge in computer literacy, manicure, pedicure, make-up and aesthetics, sewing, and more, provided information and free services to the public.

The event took place at the Roseau Youth Enterprise Center in Roseau, and training centers in St. Joseph and Portsmouth.

Speaking at the Roseau Youth Enterprise Center on Thursday morning, one of the facilitators of the program, Terry Raymond, stated that the four-month-long training course is a great way of ensuring that the youth develop the competencies needed to get a job.

“It’s for their potential career or they might want to open their own business, so we give them those skills,” he stated.

He described the success rate of the program as being “high” and once the training is completed, the participators are sent off to various businesses where they are either kept or move on to a new job that makes use of their skills.

“We also do what we call a tracer study where we trace them a year after to find out where they are, what they are doing, and how successful they are. When we do that we get a percent rate of how many of the people are employed after completing the courses,” he added.

One of the trainees of the Manicure, Pedicure, Make-up and Aesthetics course, Rachel Jno Baptist, stated that she is very excited about the course and is inviting everyone to participate in the showcasing.

“We are waiting and we are hoping that everybody comes out today, because we are skilled and we are trained and we need the practice so we want everybody to come down and let us make them feel beautiful,” she said.

The course also covers training in giving body massages and facials.

Within that course’s showcasing, they operate under the name ‘Celebeauty’ which signifies that there is beauty is in everyone.

One of the trainees in the beauty course, Brenda Pinard, said that she has received a large amount of information including things that she had no previous knowledge of.

“It has been an eye opener. I learnt a lot within these two months period, things I never knew. I learnt how to do a facial, pedicure, manicure, how to better take care of my face. I never knew that you do a pedicure once a month and you do a manicure twice a month according to how your fingers are,” Pinard said.

Like all the other trainees within the different courses, Pinard sees this new skill as a way of making herself more marketable, and will without a doubt encourage others to partake in the training course.

“I hope one day that I can open up my own business or I would be able to do it in my community and better people in my community…I would say to the young people out there to please learn it a skill, it will be valuable to you, when you learn the skill you don’t learn it for yourself but you learn it for you and others,” Pinard said.

A trainee in the computer literacy course, Diana Dequental, said that her knowledge and skills have improved and she feels more prepared for the world of business and job opportunities.

“We learned about the different hardware and software programs, applications used. We also looked at Microsoft Word, we learnt how to use our menus in Microsoft Word application and so on…I can go out and say that I am now computer literate and I will be more at an advantage in terms of getting a job,” the trainee remarked.

The Computer literacy package offers, to young people and people in the working class, information on digital literacy and what using the computer is all about.

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5 Comments

  1. Hendricks ismael
    April 20, 2017

    Or as Graham described it for indeed , the investors chief problem and even his worst enemy is likely to be himself . Newton jumped back in at a much higher price and lost 20.000 lbs ( or more than $3 million in 2002 or 2003) money . For the rest of his life, he forbade any one to speak the words south sea in his presence . Newton obviously wasn’t an unintelligent person . He invented calculus and conceptualized his three laws of motion . This little episode shows that he wasn’t a smart investor . In dominica we must teach about all concepts of creating wealth. The British gave us independence and nothing else. We must Chang the way we educate our kids if we want to succeed in the global stage . Great job continue to teach and educate, our kids have to be introduced to a lot more to have a fighting chance in this competitive environment . Dr Donald Peters is trying his best to Chang the educational system . The system we have now creates civil servants not business owners.

  2. Hendricks ismael
    April 20, 2017

    The youth skills training program is a good model that should be duplicated in all schools across the island . And it should include the names of great investors like, David Panton, Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, James Reynolds , and Charlie Munger. Back in the spring of 1720 , sir Isaac Newton owned shares in the south sea company , the hottest stock in England . Sensing that the market getting out of hand, the great physicists muttered that he could calculate the motion of the heavenly bodies , but not the madness of the people . Isaac Newton was one of the smartest people to ever live. But being a smart physicist is not necessarily the same thing as being a smart investor . And unfortunately for him , Newton learned that the hard way . Newton dumped his south sea shares , pocketing a 100 percent profit totaling7.000 lbs, but just months latter ,swept in the wild enthusiasm of the market because he let his emotions get the best of him and got swayed by irrationality of the crowd

  3. Anthony Ismael, Graduate Degree in Kicks Off
    April 20, 2017

    What is the point of Youth Skills Training Program, when your policies does everything imaginable to keep them down and keep them in chains, in favor of the few families who run and control the island.
    Did you guys forget that when many of the young men and women began using the Internet to import and sell “Reconditioned vehicles” Karam who owns the Ford Dealership in town, convinced the government to slap a “Phony” $6000.00 “Environmental Tax” on any imported vehicle older than five years, although you have no machines in place to register a vehicle’s emission during annual registration. That tax is still in place today.
    If a “Youth-man” tries do anything for himself, he must first commit a few “Bank Robberies” in order to afford your crippling custom duty that’s imposed willy-nilly at all ports of entry on the island.
    Give me a break already.

    • A. George
      April 21, 2017

      Nothing is wrong with an “Environmental Tax” because as the Nature Isle, keeping the environment clean should be our priority. However I do agree that there needs to be a way to register a vehicle’s emission annually. Some vehicles on the road you can’t drive behind them- its like a mobile chimney!!!

  4. A. George
    April 20, 2017

    There was one in Castle Bruce too! Good job Youth Division!!!

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