PM unveils training expansion, urges youth to pursue skills-based careers

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has unveiled plans to expand vocational training opportunities for young people with programmes in welding and joinery while urging graduates to pursue their goals regardless of societal expectations.

Addressing the 2025 Project Dawn Graduation Ceremony at Ilaro Court on Thursday, where over 200 participants had completed vocational training in various skills, the prime minister said the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) would introduce a dedicated welding programme and renew its focus on joinery to reduce furniture imports and boost craftsmanship.

She said: “I hope that the SJPI in addition to the decision that we have now made to give you a dedicated welding programme because you would find work not only in Barbados but throughout the entire region if you have skills. But the other one I would like to see which we have a history of excellence in, but for which there are too few people today practising, is joinery. The truth is, if we have more top glass joiners, then the amount of furniture that we are importing can be significantly reduced.”

Mottley pointed out that there will be increased economic opportunities for young people skilled in landscaping, with the upcoming Health Services amendment which seeks to force property owners to maintain their properties.

“On Tuesday, the Parliament will be dealing with the Health Services amendment, which will create an obligation on all owners of property to keep their property clean. That is going to mean that either you do it yourself and hire the people who have the landscaping businesses, or if you don’t, government will have to do it for you, and you will have to pay us back what we paid, plus a fine for the fact that we had to do it for you.

“This is going to create business opportunities for many of you that are involved in landscaping . . . that law creates a business opportunity for those of you who have been brave enough to go and learn the skills and use them.”

The prime minister sought to inspire the Project Dawn graduates with the message that the power to achieve their dreams lay in their hands. She hailed the participants in the Ministry of Youth’s flagship Block initiative, which trains at-risk youth in vocational skills in areas such as plumbing, bobcat operations, beauty therapy, tiling and electrical installation.

Mottley commended the graduates for taking decisive steps to enhance their lives, emphasising the importance of building practical skills.

She said: “You made a choice to be able to add to your life skills that give you options. This is so important because too often in life, people think about doing something, people dream about doing something . . . but they don’t take the first step, or the second step, or the third step. You have come here tonight not only because through the Block Transformation Unit that you have been given a chance, but you have come here tonight also to be able to use this as a building block for yourself for the next step in your life.

“Without purpose, we can end up anywhere doing anything. If you don’t have a destination and you don’t work towards staying on that destination, you can be a victim of life’s circumstances.”

The prime minister urged the graduates to focus on their goals and not be swayed by society’s preconceived notions of what should be considered well-paying jobs.

“It should never matter what level of skills you have because there are welders and they are masons and there are carpenters out there working for more than bank tellers and administrative officers in government,” she declared. “There are landscapers who make a decent living and earn far more than other people who work doing other things that would appear to be more glorious to people.

“Once the work is decent, once the work is honest, then by all means do not let anybody distract you from doing that work.”

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb