Rose Hall youths introduced to HEART training programmes
Published:Tuesday | July 17, 2018 | 12:00 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/ Gleaner Writer
Recently, an outreach saw the Child Development Agency (now Child Protection and Family Service Agencies), Social Development Commission (SDC) and the Community Service and Security Branch of the May Pen Police Station making a visit to the high-risk community of Rose Hall in Clarendon.
There, residents, among their list of complaints, expressed the need for skills training.
Last Wednesday, the mobile unit of the HEART Trust/NTA, as well as representatives from the SDC followed up with a visit to the community.
Recruitment coordinator for HEART Trust South West Regional office, Zeco Brown, who interacted with over 35 youths, said they were introduced to available courses, as well as necessary information on the application process.
"They were also introduced to the National Unattached Youth Programme that is offered by HEART Trust/NTA in that constituency," he told The Gleaner.
On Wednesday, July 18, the HEART NTA team will be back in the community for a sensitisation session in Free Town at the International Gospel Centre.
The session will explore the many opportunities available for training and where they can be taken up.
Brown said the trust is interested in pushing the programmes to ensure youths are occupied.
"Now more than ever, since the merger of the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning, Apprenticeship Board, HEART Trust/NTA and the NYS, the new merged entity, which still operates under the name HEART Trust/NTA, is eager to train and certify every untrained Jamaican," he said, pointing out that there has been great concern for young persons across the island, and in particular those from Clarendon, based on the high level of crime that has been plaguing the parish.
It is for that reason, he said, that there has been an increase in the development of numerous training opportunities such as the Graduate Work Experience Programme, Empowerment Programme, High School Equivalency Programme, Registered Apprenticeship Programme, among others.