Caribbean News
JAMAICA: Hundreds of young Jamaicans being exposed to Tertiary Training
#Kingston, June 18, 2018 – Jamaica – Hundreds of young Jamaicans are being exposed to tertiary training this summer through an internship programme at the University of Technology (UTech). The programme is being carried out through a partnership between UTech and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), which has been developed to enable the interns between 18 and 35 years of age to get a pre-university experience in a 
college setting.
Approximately 1,000 underserved young people from across the island’s 63 constituencies will be engaged over four separate three-week periods. Cohorts consisting of approximately 250 participants will be accommodated on the UTech campus and will attend classes in a number of subject areas. The courses developed by UTech for the programme are Mathematics, English, Information Technology, Robotics, Land Surveying, Entrepreneurship and Basic Construction. The youngsters will be placed according to their interest and academic competence.
Endorsing the collaborative initiative between the two entities, Science, Energy and Technology Minister, Dr. the Hon. Andrew Wheatley, said it represents “hope and is a golden opportunity”.
“We believe in the youth of Jamaica. So many young people have the dreams of pursuing an education at our tertiary institutions but lack the means or the resources to make it possible. Today, we are making dreams possible… under this programme,” he said.
Dr. Wheatley was addressing the launch of the internship programme at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on June 14. The Minister noted that the interns will have an opportunity to be introduced to future work environments and “help in deciding future career choices”.
“It will also help the interns to acquire important supplementary skills during the stated period while opening the doors to potential future employers,” he added.
Dr. Wheatley said the experience gained will help to structure future studies of the participants and enable potential economic benefits. He encouraged them to seize the opportunity being offered to them with both hands by putting their minds to the task at hand, arguing that there is no reason why (they) cannot “develop the next breakthrough technology”. Dr. Wheatley said this internship programme mirrors another, which is also training 1,000 youth under a partnership with the Universal Service Fund (USF) and the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU).
Meanwhile, PCJ Chairman, Russell Hadeed, said the internship programme embodies his organisation’s corporate social responsibility policy, which gives priority to initiatives that allow them to support education and youth development. He expects that with the exposure, the interns will 
be able to develop their technical and entrepreneurial skills as well as be able to pursue tertiary studies. Mr. Hadeed said that the participants, who will be awarded certificates of competence, are expected to contribute to nation-building.
For his part, UTech’s President, Professor Stephen Vasciannie, welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the PCJ “to provide secondary-school graduates and youth in underserved communities with a pre-university experience”. Noting that the programme is already under way, Professor Vasciannie said the first of three cohorts of students, who have been resident at UTech since May, completed training on June 8.
“So far, the programme has been going well. It has been a good cross-faculty exposure (for the students) with inputs coming from our Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Faculty of the Built Environment and the College of Business and Management, including the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management,” he said.
Professor Vasciannie said that UTech continues to enjoy a very productive and long-standing partnership with the PCJ, developing initiatives aimed at capacity building in engineering education, scholarships and research.
Release: JIS
KINGSTON, April 29 (JIS):
Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, says the outcome of discussions arising from the Jamaica National Stakeholder Consultation on Climate Services and the 1st National Climate Forum (NCF-1) will assist in guiding the Government’s planning for climate change.
This, he points out, is important for climate mitigation as well as building Jamaica’s resilience.
“We look forward to the discussions that will, no doubt, take place. We look forward to the basis of planning for the Government to streamline its investments to ensure you have the tools that you need to better advise us, that the WRA (Water Resources Authority) has the tools to digitise its monitoring network, and that all of the agencies that touch our planning mechanisms have the tools. But we need to know what we are facing, and we’re guided by your expertise,” Minister Samuda said.
He was addressing the opening ceremony for the Jamaica National Stakeholder Consultation on Climate Services and the 1st National Climate Forum (NCF-1) at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in New Kingston on Monday (April 29).
Senator Samuda said given the fact that the climate has changed and continues to do so, investments in and collaborations on building Jamaica’s predictive and scientific capacity must be prioritised.
“Ultimately, we need to be able to assess our current climatic realities if we are to better plan, if we’re to insist and ensure that our infrastructure meets the needs that we need it to. I’m very happy that this event is happening… because this is a critical issue.
“Jamaica, last year, faced its worst and most severe drought… and this year, we’re already seeing the impacts of not quite as severe a drought but, certainly, a drought with severe impacts, especially in the western part of the country,” he said.
Principal Director, Meteorological Service of Jamaica, Evan Thompson, explained that the forum aims to, among other things, establish a collaboration platform for climate services providers and users to understand risks and opportunities of past, present and future climate developments, as well as improve inter-agency coordination of policies, plans and programmes.
Among the other presenters were Ambassador, European Union to Jamaica, Her Excellency Marianne Van Steen; Chief Scientist/Climatologist, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, Adrian Trotman; and Head, Regional Climate Prediction Services, World Meteorological Organization, Wilfran Moufouma-Okia.
The Meteorological Service of Jamaica hosted the Jamaica National Stakeholder Consultation on Climate Services and the 1st National Climate Forum (NCF-1) in partnership with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology and the World Meteorological Organization.
The National Stakeholder Consultation is a governance mechanism that guides how different sectors or actors work together to create products that contribute to adaptation and resilience-building. It seeks to create a road map for the development and implementation of climate services to inform decision-making.
NCF-1 aims to bridge the gap between climate providers and users. It increases the use of science-based information in decision-making and operations with the aim of generating and delivering co-produced and co-designed products and services.
CONTACT: CHRIS PATTERSON
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