Ministers conduct site visit at Kuru Kuru Training Centre

- ahead of Guyana Youth Corps launch

The Government of Guyana is moving ahead with the establishment of the Guyana Youth Corps and in so doing, the Minister of Social Cohesion Hon. Dr George Norton and Minister of Education Dr. the Hon. Nicolette Henry visited the Kuru Kuru Training Centre (KKTC) to assess its readiness.

The Youth Corps programme, the first of its kind, is scheduled to be launched at the KKTC during the first half of this year. The Guyana Youth Corps programme will be spearheaded by the Ministry of Social Cohesion with assistance from all the other ministries.

During the site visit, Ministers Norton and Henry inspected a number of facilities in the compound. In addition, the Ministers interacted with staff members and technical officers to ascertain the state of readiness for the programme launch. In an invited comment, Minister Henry said that a visit of this nature is in order since this will allow to identify where the gaps are and at the same time closing those with decisive action.

According to Dr Henry, a programme of this magnitude should be properly executed, hence the reason why she was visiting the college with her colleague. Minister Norton during his visit noted the importance of those involved communicating with each other to ensure a successful project outcome when it is launched.

The Guyana Youth Corps is intended to cater for youths that were not able to matriculate after leaving secondary school and are unemployed. The programme will cater for 1000 applicants from across the country when it is launched. There will be eleven centres across the country and more importantly youths from every region in Guyana will be able to access this programme since there will be centres in each region.

According to Jermaine Watson, Project Officer-Youth Empowerment Unit-Ministry of Social Cohesion, outside of the traditional programmes such as masonry, carpentry and bricklaying, the Guyana Youth Corps will look to inculcate or sharpen certain key skills.

Towards this end, Watson said that the programme will offer courses in leadership, communication skills and entrepreneurship among others. Further, Watson said these courses will serve to empower youths with skills and attributes that will be necessary as they venture into the world of work.

The programme’s main thrust is to empower out of school youths so that the skills attained during this training will allow them to become much more marketable and employable in the working environment.