Sandy Point Youth Targeted for CEBO Training

SKNIS Photo 1: Senior Youth Officer Pierre Liburd (right) and a member of SPIRIT (center) sign up a youth for the CEBO training

Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 02, 2012 (SKNIS): The Department of Youth Empowerment has begun recruiting persons to participate in the first Creativity for Employment and Business Opportunity (CEBO) training programme scheduled to be held in the near future.

Senior Youth Officer Pierre Liburd told SKNIS that the town of Sandy Point has been chosen to implement the inaugural training given a number of factors including the size of the youth population, the resources in the community as well as the presence of strong community groups that can lend support to the project.

As such, Mr. Liburd and the local facilitators for the CEBO programme, teamed with members of the Sandy Pointers Inspiring Real Improvement Throughout (SPIRIT) organization on Saturday (September 29) to conduct a walkthrough of the community. The group actively engaged males and females between the age of 16 to 29 who are out of school and out of work and assessed their interest in employment and entrepreneurship.

SKNIS Photo 2: Copies of this locally designed CEBO brochure were given to interested persons in Sandy Point

“This walkthrough marks the culmination of almost twelve months of hard work involving various partners both local and regional, who contributed to the development of the CEBO entrepreneurship training material, procedures and mechanisms necessary to facilitate the proper training and guidance for our youth to pursue their own business ventures,” Liburd stated. “The Department of Youth Empowerment is honoured to partner with youth-led community organizations such as SPIRIT to deliver this and similar initiatives and looks forward to engaging other members of the community to provide the support necessary to ensure the success of our youth.”

SPIRIT’s public relation officer Che-Raina Warner explained that promoting youth entrepreneurship is one of the agenda items of her group and they are pleased to be contributing to this initiative. She described the walkthrough as “a success,” noting that the response from the target audience as well as other persons in the community “was very good.”

The upcoming workshop will cater to 25 persons. Participants will engage in theoretical sessions in the morning and will create and sell products during the afternoon. The Department proposes to have three trainings before the year ends – two in St. Kitts and one in Nevis.

Interested persons are encouraged to contact 467-1393 for additional information.