Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment, Adrian Forde. (FP)

Some 20 young persons are currently undergoing training at a Creativity for Employment and Opportunity (CEBO) workshop, being staged by the Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment and the CARICOM Secretariat.

The five-day workshop is expected to build the capacity of participants to deliver peer-to-peer training for at-risk, unattached youth and young offenders. 

Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment, Adrian Forde, who delivered remarks at the start of this morning’s workshop, explained that the event would “add to our list of modalities for engaging and facilitating entrepreneurial activity among young people in Barbados in order to counter youth unemployment and reduce crime and violence”.   

Mr. Forde shared his belief that the CEBO workshops are the types of investment in development that are of interest to his Ministry, especially given the fact that entrepreneurship has been declared a critical component within the country’s overall economic recovery strategy.

“This training will, therefore, support this strategy by producing a cadre of young people with the knowledge, skills and abilities to enable and support their peers by creating their own businesses and being gainfully employed in creative disciplines such as sports, entertainment, the arts, craft, fashion and beauty services. 

“In essence, this training will support our efforts at reducing youth unemployment,” the Youth Minister surmised.

Similar CEBO workshops are also expected to be delivered in five other CARICOM Member States, namely Belize, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.

paula.harper-grant@barbados.gov.bb

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