Multilateral Cooperation: Youth employment
| Requesting country | Providing country |
|---|---|
| Barbados | Jamaica |
RIAL Cooperation on Youth Employment among Ministries of Labor of the Caribbean
PARTICIPANTS:
- Providing Country: Jamaica
- Requesting Country: Barbados
- Participant countries: St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, Grenada.
From September 10 to 14, three Barbados officials visited the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) of Jamaica to learn about their practices in the area of Youth Employment. Since the study trip was carried out as a follow-up to the topics covered in the "Inter-sectoral Workshop on Youth Employment: Articulation between Education and Work" of 2016, it was also attended by delegates from St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis and Grenada.
The general objective of the study tour was to promote the enhancement of Caribbean youth employment policies and programs, including training and school-to-work transition initiatives, in order to reduce the high levels of youth unemployment and high numbers of young people neither in education nor employment.
For five days, delegates from these Caribbean countries analyzed the experiences of Jamaica's main youth employment programs. Among them was the HEART Trust, the National Training Agency (NTA), the National Youth Service (NYS) and the On the Job Training Program (OJT).
Also, through presentations by Jamaican officials, the representatives of the visiting countries learned about the operation of areas such as the Labor Market Information System (LMIS) and the Electronic Work Exchange (ELE) of the Ministry of Jamaica.
The Cooperation Activity ended with field visits so that the delegates could analyze the implementation of these programs in practice. The first one took place in the Jamaican Producers Factory, and the second in the Montego Bay area, where they had the opportunity to interact with the interns of the Hilton Rose Hall.
Among the steps to follow listed by the delegation of Barbados, it is important to highlight the commitment to negotiate better partnerships with institutions of technical and vocational training, as well as to strengthen the unit of research and statistical analysis of the workforce of the Ministry of Labor of Barbados. Likewise, they pointed out that with the knowledge acquired, several aspects of the Barbados Employment and Career Counseling Service (BECCS) can be improved, such as the development of promotion campaigns, processes, and programs carried out by said service.
