Government reintroduces tech-voc training for youth

NEARLY $22.5 million will be spent on relaunching the Persto Praesto Youth Development and Apprenticeship Centre formerly known as the Persto Praesto youth camp.

On Tuesday, Minister of Youth Development and National Service Foster Cummings, at a sod-turning ceremony, launched the project which was part of a wider programme to reintroduce technical vocational training to young people. Persto Praesto is in Freeport.

Other facilities scheduled for renovation and reopening include the St Michael’s Home for Boys, Chatham Youth Development and Apprenticeship Centre, El Dorado Girls Youth Camp, a flagship facility at Wallerfield, and the repurposing of the Chaguaramas Convention Centre.

Discussions, Cummings said, are ongoing with the Tobago House of Assembly to reopen the Mt St George Youth Camp.

The cost of the other camps is still being worked out.

“Government has decided to reopen all the existing youth camps, now called youth and development apprenticeship centres and its target audiences are 15-18, 19-25 and 18-35 years old.

“In an effort to modernise the arrangements to make sure that we attract the right target group, we have a curriculum that would feed into our sustainable development goals as a country, and a management model that will ensure the sustainable continuation of these facilities.”

MTS, he said was awarded the contract for the work at Persto Praesto.

Cummings added that the MYPART and MiLAT programmes would also be extended from 125 to 250 participants at its various locations.

“It is our intention to modernise the facility at the teachers’ training college in Mausica and to expand that facility to double the intake. It is also our intention to expand the MYPART programme at the same facility and to modernise the facilities available to the Civilian Conservation Corp.

“The Government will utilise the former Petrotrin beach camp facility and will operate from that facility, in addition to all the programmes run by the specialised youth services which is in conjunction with the military, we will as well operate a transition home for boys.”

Cummings said the Government was intent on harmonising training needs with jobs in various industries to provide business and entrepreneurial opportunities.

“What you are seeing rolled out is a very targeted programme designed to reintroduce mass technical vocational training throughout our youth population, so that we prepare them for the world of work, but we also prepare them as budding entrepreneurs and job creators to the sustainable development of our young people.

Cummings said graduates of the Youth Agricultural Homestead Programme (YAHP) will be given leases for state lands in which underutilised Government lands will be developed into two-acre parcels with all the necessary infrastructure.

“The YAHP will ensure that upon completion of a two-year programme — one year at UTT ECIAF, and one-year practical training on the land — those persons graduating from the programme, 18-35 years, will be able to access leases for state lands and would be able to pursue their interests and a career in agro-business.

“Upon completion of their second-year practical training, and if the committee is satisfied that they (graduates) are serious about agriculture as a career, they will move forward to the 30-year lease. The pilot project will be run on former Petrotrin lands but there are plans to utilise lands throughout TT, including Caroni lands.”

He said these initiatives were just some of the many projects the ministry was rolling out to promote the agri-sector and entrepreneurship.

“Participants at the youth camps would receive a stipend of $75 per day and YAHP graduates would receive a non–refundable grant of $20,000 as part of their start-up input.”

Technical vocational training was under the remit of the then ministry of tertiary education under the People’s Partnership government which included similar training at the above-mentioned facilities as well as MIC, NESC and YTEPP.