Barrington Flemming, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

MORE THAN 200 young persons in the South St James constituency are being trained in the field of information technology for employment in the Montego Bay Free Zone under an initiative undertaken by their Member of Parliament Derrick Kellier.

"Within Southern St James, we have two major training initiatives taking place right now; we have a European Union-funded project that is geared to train 200 young persons in the first instance for jobs in the free zone. Those jobs are there waiting for them," Kellier told The Gleaner.

He added: "We have acquired more than 20 computers under a project supported by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, HEART Trust-NTA and the Community Training for Empower-ment Programme to deal with training for the community of Cambridge."

Kellier, who is also labour minister, said J$30 million was used to acquire equipment and to carry out the programme. He said a second programme was also implemented to broaden the base of training in the area.

"There is also the Community Training for Empowerment Programme where we continue to train people for the hospitality industry. We have been doing this for a number of years. This current batch that we are training will take us close to 1,000 persons trained and certified by HEART Trust under the programme. This is for any age group, once you are over 18 you can enter this programme."

Kellier, who said he has forged a partnership with the Maldon Baptist Church to use the Old Branch Texas College to initiate another training programme there, said the main requirement for the programme is that the participants must be able to read and write.

barrington.flemming@gleanerjm.com