Minister slammed over ‘silence’ on youth unemployment
Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn has criticised the Minister for Education and Youth Affairs for what he describes as her silence amid a high level of youth unemployment in the territory.
“The biggest problem facing our youth is unemployment and the Minister for Youth Affairs is absolutely silent on the issue,” Walwyn said on the Pulse of the People radio show recently. “I’ve told her: Minister you have a vested interest in these young people as well. You’ve got to find a way to get an employment programme in the Ministry of Youth Affairs to alleviate the problem.”
Walwyn — who recently rejected government statistics placing the territory’s unemployment rate at 2.3 percent — said a public-private partnership is needed to establish a youth employment programme. He noted that such a programme existed during his tenure as Minister for Education and Youth Affairs under the previous National Democratic Party administration.
“I’ve raised the matter of the Youth Employment Services programme with him (the Premier), that existed before. We formed a private-public partnership — government paid a portion of the salaries for a period of time and the private sector paid for the next period. Over a six-month period, with intervention and working together, a lot of those people became fully employed. We don’t have a programme for unemployment in this country,” Walwyn explained.
Meanwhile, At-Large Representative Stacy “Buddha” Mather said Premier Dr. Natalio Wheatley is in the best position to spearhead a public-private partnership to address youth unemployment in the territory.
He pointed to the numerous portfolios under the Premier’s remit — including Finance, Tourism, Culture and Sustainable Development, Financial Services, Economic Development, and Digital Transformation — saying all these areas present opportunities for collaboration with the private sector.
“If you want to create a programme within government that extends into the private sector, the Premier has every tool available to him,” Mather said.
Walwyn has recently drawn attention to unemployment concerns, stating that a growing number of people visit Road Town daily in search of jobs.
He also expressed concern that the Premier has failed to present a comprehensive plan to tackle the issue, citing the high number of participants in the government’s RATED programme as a clear and troubling indicator of rising unemployment in society.
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Why don’t they learn a trade while in high school. Work with local companies to train locals while in high school
That little girl isn’t studying you Hon. Walwyn. She is just flying on planes and playing with robots. We are in a big mess in every area
“That little girl”
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Disrespectful. Show some respect to people and perhaps they may listen to what you have to say.
More steam, more steam.
Aye pull dah train horn mek dem peeple move out deh way.
Little ms. Robot girl, nothing of value to the school system. Get lost Robot girl.
Look little Miss Robot . She and her CEO buddy haven’t a clue what they are doing. Just hungry for power
There will be plenty of ‘work’ for military age young men when WWW III commences this decade!
Respect is due when respect is given. Tell she put back my tax money in the treasury that she extended to she so call family.
The schools is in dire need of shitz paper…!
Slam herrrrrrrr, she deserved to be slammed. Shame herrrrrr, she deserved to be shamed. The schools and the public school system in the BVi has turned into one big failure.
The whole Caribbean has that youth unemployment problem, the onliest way to solve it, those cay or islands you all are selling out to rich white people should instead be used to create entrepreneurship for youth with government lending them Monday is to build boutique hotel,band then put that on the stock market for other youths to buy shares and gets income, we have to stop this white savior complex of some investor coming in to create jobs, bank of Asia was one that’s now costing tax payers