THA Says YES is not OJT

THA Secretary of Finance and Enterprise Development Dr Anselm London has said it was false for Minority Leader Ashworth Jack to say that the current YES (Youth Energised for Success) programme was an OJT (On the Job Training) programme.

.He said the statement by Jack was deliberately false and misleading and he ought not to do that, adding that at the formal launch of the programme three weeks ago it was made absolutely clear that it was not an OJT programme. "YES is not an OJT programme and the Minority Leader should know better and should not be engaged in this kind of political tomfoolery," he said.

Dr London further stated that Jack's claim that persons will be receiving $4,000 per month was far from the truth. "These are highly trained individuals in all kinds of fields, be they in finance, economics, business, engineering, sociology, mathematics, these are all graduates, people trained by the THA and for Mr Jack to take it upon himself to mislead the rest of the community about the wages paid and the type of programme, that is false," he added.

The Finance Secretary said the first 38 persons to be employed shortly will not receive $4,000 per month as claimed by the Minority Leader but some were going to receive $10,000 per month and upwards.

Dr London said Jack should know about the programme since it was discussed in the last THA budget presentation to the House of Assembly in June. It was also discussed at a seminar attended by youth and business organisations last September. 

reproduce from THA news

THA Launched the YES Programme.

THA Chief Secretary Orville London
launched the Assembly’s YES Programme
 at the Mount Irvine Bay Hotel on Tuesday 28th August 2012.

The statement 50 years ago by the nation's first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams that the future of the nation was in the school bags of its children was relevant today as it was then even though "those school bags may have been transformed into computers".

"In the final analysis our young people are not only our future but our present and our only hope," THA Chief Secretary Orville London said at the launch of the Assembly's Youth Energised for Success (YES) Programme on Tuesday (August 28 2012) at the Mount Irvine Bay Hotel. Some 400 young persons attended the launch.

London recalled that 50 years ago less two days the "Father of the Nation" Dr Eric Williams journeyed to the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain and addressed the youth of the nation. "I think that of all those addresses Williams has ever made this one is the most enduring. It is relevant today as it was 50 years ago."

He said it was in that address Williams entrusted the future of the nation in the loving and tender hands of the youth. "It is in that address he spoke of enshrining the pride of our nation in the innocent hearts of the youth, it is in that address he spoke of the future of the nation in the school bags of our children and even though those school bags may have been transformed into computers the relevance of that remains and in the final analysis our young people are not only our future but our present and our only hope," he added.

London said: "Therein are our challenge and our responsibility because if our young people, our future, our present and our hope, we have to respond to our challenge not of preparing them but of facilitating their preparation and we must consistently make that distinction."

He said it was not the responsibility of the adult to prepare young people but it was the responsibility of the adult and the Tobago House of Assembly to nurture an environment in which young people can prepare and most importantly in which young people can prepare themselves.

London said without making excuses it must be understood that "we are operating in a very challenging environment and the situation in Tobago is no different from the situation facing any small developing economy, especially a small developing economy which has been providing increased training and developing opportunities over an extended period of time".

He said over the last ten years the Assembly has been consistently increasing the opportunities for training and in fact the opportunities for training in Tobago were far superior to what existed in any other part of the country and the region. He said in addition to the opportunities available to nationals of Trinidad and Tobago the Assembly provided other opportunities and other avenues in the Tobago situation.

He added that what has happened and what was happening was that at the end of the exercise there were a number of people who cannot get employment and the kind of satisfaction which they expected.

London said while the THA will place skilled and unskilled workers in its various Divisions it cannot do it alone and appealed to the private sector to continue their support for the programme. He said: "When we speak of professionals we speak of them in the widest possible term, not that concept of a doctor or lawyer but anybody who is a professional in his field."

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