BVI Angie’s List: Workers registry to be created

By Davion Smith, BVI News Staff

While encouraging young persons to be alert of the entrepreneurial possibilities now available in light of the hurricanes, Minister of Education Myron Walwyn said government will be implementing a registry where the public can access young workers to do specific jobs.

“You know, [it would be] pretty much like how you have Angie’s List in the Unites States: If you want a plumber, if you want someone to clean your yard, if you want someone to do those sort of stuff, you have somewhere to go and you have names and you have numbers. That is being worked on right now,” Walwyn said.

The education minister said the initiative is being organized under the Youth Employment Services (YES) programme.

Speaking yesterday during a townhall broadcast, Walwyn said the registry is being developed to get young persons actively involved in recovery efforts.

“I had a meeting with the Youth Employment Coordinator last week to find a way to engage young people in the jobs that exist now. We have to open our minds and broaden our minds as well because there are a lot of entrepreneurship opportunities particularly in cleanup, gardening, and those different things. So, one of the plans that we have is to provide something.”

“We are going to also try to develop a registry for persons who are already entrepreneurs so that persons can find those entrepreneurs very quickly if they want those services; and that would be done through the youth employment services coordinator as well.”

Walwyn, in the meantime, said his ministry also plans to continue the YES apprenticeship programme which effectively matches unemployed youth with available jobs in the territory.

“We know as well that even though we’ve had destruction [from the hurricanes]… there are still persons who are looking persons to do certain things in various businesses and so in the apprenticeship programme that we started; we still intend, in a cautious way, to be able to provide that service to young people who are looking work,” said Walwyn, adding that the ministry is exploring various ways of creating opportunities for young locals.