at Smythfiled Drop-In Centre last year
Empowering youths and providing resources for academic success are the aims of the Smythfield Drop-In Centre and Vryman’s Erven Centre in New Amsterdam, Berbice.
The centres from an adolescent-and-youth-friendly space, and offer non-residential vocational training for youths.
At Smythfield, groups of youths up to age 20 that come from surrounding areas participate in short programmes done in collaboration with non-governmental organisations and other social organisations. The nature of these programmes requires no entry-level test; they are primarily practical courses done on a part-time basis. There are several organised social and cultural activities especially in the afternoons, on the weekends and during the school holiday period. At Vrymans Erven, six month courses are run for out-of-school youths in Information Technology and Garment Construction.
The centres host the Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training Programme (YEST) which became a unit under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport on January 1, 2000. The unit emerged from what was formerly the Guyana National Service, utilizing the resources available to combine skills training and entrepreneurship as one way of enhancing the employment potential of young who have left the formal school system and need to be gainfully occupied.
The programme offers continuing educational advancement to youths who participate in technical vocational skills in the area of Information Technology/Office Administration for duration of six months. Students are then attached to an agency for a four-week period towards the end of their training. They are also afforded the opportunity to go on an educational tour before the programme is finish.
The programmes’ aim is to help youths become well-rounded individuals. As such cultural activities, sports, hikes and confidence building activities are part of the curriculum.
In an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine, Omeshwar Sirikishun, Culture, Youth and Sport Officer for Region Six and supervisor for the centres, said the objective of all training is primarily to prepare participants and/ or afford them a second opportunity particularly the out of school youths, for entry into other institutions of learning, employment in private or public sectors, and self-employment in their communities.
“Recognizing the need for the YEST programme to be expanded because of the regular drop-out of young people from the formal school system, particularly in Region Six, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, as part of its growing mandate to provide skills training for young people, took the challenge to introduce Information Technology/Office Administration and Tailoring on March 6, 2008, at the Smythfield Drop-in Centre. The training is now executed at the Vryman’s Erven Training Centre. Cosmetology was included in the curriculum in February 2013,” Sirikishun outlined.
The programme runs for a period of six month, and since its inception, 252 persons between the ages of 16–25 have successfully benefitted from the training. Presently, 55 students are on training and would graduate in January 2014.
Noting the success of the programmes, Sirikishun mentioned 115 youths between the ages of 16-25 were trained in 2013 under YEST, during which students were exposed to practical and theoretical aspects of Information Technology, Office Administration and Cosmetology.
The youth officer pointed out that assessments are done once a month to allow each student enough time to understand and practice the exercise given in the areas covered under the two components. Over the reporting period, students were exposed to a number of other activities such as workshops, tours, and adventures that was organized and implemented by the Department of Culture, Youth and Sports in Region Six.
“The programmes are beneficial to youths because it provides them with an opportunity to earn a life skill. Youth, particularly from Angoy Avenues has express gratitude and thank to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport for affording them the opportunity to use the basketball court and all other recreational and education facilities available at the Smythfield Drop In Centre and Vrymans Erven Centre. Also the centres always welcome volunteers from government, NGOs and other social organizations. We now look forward to a fruitful and blessed 2014,” Sirikishun declared.
