Throughout the year, the Government continued to implement programmes aimed at empowering Jam-aican citizens, particularly young people, who benefited from skills training and employment opportunities.
Jamaica House Fellows
• Seven young professionals were selected as the second cohort for the
Jamaica House Fellowship Programme and will serve in various capacities within the public sector for a two years.
HOPE Programme
• 50 youngsters were recruited to assist with the electronic monitoring of Jamaicans, who returned to the island under the controlled re-entry programme, to control the local spread of COVID-19.
• 40 young people were recruited to work on the Ministry of Science,
Energy and Technology’s digitisation programme for 12 months.
• An initial cohort of 50 young persons benefited under a driver-training programme, aimed at transforming them into professional public
transportation agents.
• 23 interns were engaged in the production of more than 50,000 cloth masks, with 30,000 distributed to citizens, particularly the needy, and the rest sold to corporate sponsors.
• 7,546 persons were facilitated in educational and job opportunities
over four weeks under the HOPE Summer Employment Programme.
Utility Wardens Trained
• 93 persons from 18 communities across seven parishes were trained to work in their communities as utility wardens to ensure that residents had access to plumbers with leak detection and water conservation expertise.
HEART/NSTA Trust
• The HEART/NSTA Trust launched a mobile training unit, which will serve trainees in rural areas.
• MOU signed with Overseas Examinations Commission (OEC) to
increase the viability and sustainability of the National Council on
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) assessment and certification of the labour force.
