USAID launching youth skills and employment project

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Guyana) has hosted several workshops in preparation for the launch of a two-year Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment (SKYE) Project in April to equip young adults for the job market and entrepreneurship.

In a press release, USAID said that along with its implementing partner, the Education for Development Centre (EDC), it inaugurated the project with a “Work Readiness Curriculum Design Workshop” on March 6, 7 and 9. “Work readiness is a set of basic employability skills, knowledge and behaviours used by youth and adults in order to be successful as entry-level workers or as entrepreneurs,” the release said. The EDC is a US-based global education and training institution.

The SKYE Project aims to strengthen youth’s access to justice and equip them with skills to improve their ability to find employment and play productive roles in the national economy.

SKYE’s target groups consist of school drop-outs, youth who completed formal education or training but do not have the necessary skills to find employment and youth involved in the juvenile justice system. SKYE works in regions Four, Six, Nine and 10.

The objective of the workshop was to discuss the foundation of the “Work Readiness” curriculum that will be used by trainers to impart key employment skills to participants.

The SKYE curriculum adaptation process will be completed this month in order to train the first youth beneficiaries in April, the release said.

The project was funded under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, the release said.