Tue | Nov 28, 2023

National Mentorship Scheme on the anvil

Published:Friday | August 25, 2017 | 12:00 AM
Leo Hudson
Janice Grant Taffe (third row, sixth left), Sagicor Group senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary; Floyd Green (first row, sixth left), minister of state in the Ministry of Education; and Damion Crawford (first row, fourth left), keynote speaker at the Sagicor Foundation Scholarship Awards ceremony, share in a photo-op with the 2017 Sagicor scholars. The Sagicor Foundation Scholarship Awards ceremony was held yesterday at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel. Sixty-eight scholarships were awarded, covering 37 Grade Six Achievement Test awards and 31 tertiary awardees.

State Minister for Education, Youth and Information Floyd Green says that plans are in an advanced stage for the creation of an all-island national mentorship scheme.

He said the plan involves a partnership with the National Security and Economic Growth and Job Creation ministries.

The state minister was speaking to JIS News at the third staging of the Sagicor Foundation Scholarship Awards ceremony, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, on August 24.

Green said that work to achieve the all-island national mentorship scheme has already started under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme, launched in May this year by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

"We're tapping into university students, recruiting them and getting them to sign up to start some training to become mentors," he said.

The HOPE Programme is geared at improving the social prospects of Jamaicans, particularly the youth.