ANNOU PALE – No Jobs For Me… continued

THE VOICE introduces a brand new column ANNOU PALE aimed at stimulating dialogue on some of the most pressing problems facing our country at this time.

We plan that this conversation will continue for some time throwing up ideas and solutions to the problems that have been identified and selected for discussion. You, the reader, have the opportunity to join the debate which in fact, has already started.

We begin by looking at the issue of unemployment and the unavailability of jobs at a time when another 3,000 or so young persons are about to be unleashed onto the job market. The reality is that our country with a 24.9 percent unemployment rate, has made no preparation for them. So what is their future going to be?
New Views from our last Tuesday’s comments

~~~~Ella~~~~
This is a beautiful thread with so many wonderful responses.
There is nothing more important than education……..Genaspen, Genaspen, Genaspen UMMMM whyyyyyyyyyyyy……one of “the best things” is the education system…

I believe that education should be an empowering process that allows and guides children to develop their passions, critical thinking, compassion, and orientation towards wisdom for timely action. The purpose of education should be to prepare children for life, nourishing the potential in every child so that each may connect and contribute his or her unique ideas and abilities to society. But with so much said, I have to end my comment…Peter pan and Genaspen have opened my mind a little bit more.

~~~~Peter Pan~~~~
Overhaul our education system.
A not so comprehensive list of employment opportunity might include the following areas. Civil Service, (government), Tourism, Construction, Farming, Fishing, Trading, Business, Police, Teaching, Professional Services, Technical Services.
The former student with eight CXC would find difficulty in being anything but a “gofor” in any of the noted opportunity areas. The inescapable truth is clear. More training is necessary before the CXC potential can be realized and there is only lip service been paid to the blatant need at present.

At this stage of our past student’s life there are expectations of financial contribution to the family unit. No one has explained to Mom and Dad that their offspring is educationally half baked and needs to do more courses. There is now in the Happy Home, annoyance, despair, depression, resentment, total disillusionment with the system and no effective recourse.

In the real “World”, there is pay back and our youth man / woman must help to put food on the table by whatever means. Gone are the dreams and the brief flirt with honesty and self-respect.

Our education model ill equips students with the tools for the job environment. This is by design. It makes little attempt to address the issue. It is part of a system which was designed for another social environment. It cannot and is not working for us.
Our challenge is to mold the two thirds of our school leavers into a pool of talent with realistic aspirations capable of offering skill sets required in the 21 century and in the 3rd 4th and 5th decades to come.

~~~~ Depressed and jobless ~~~~
I have been unemployed for a year and a half. Growing up I was told to go to school, study adamantly so that I can gain the highest grades in order for me to “earn a living” and “have a career”. But how can I do so when bridges are more important to the St. Lucian government than employment or majority of the businesses here in St. Lucia seek more experienced persons (and I wonder how can I ever gain experience if no one hires me) or even if I were to be hired like the first job I had, I will be manipulated because of my age.

The first job I had, I worked 8 – 5 Monday to Friday, my boss wanted me to come in on Saturday and Sunday to work another 8 – 5 with no off days in the upcoming week and no overtime pay. And yes, I have participated in training programmes in the Tourism industry and have sent out 187 job applications… I’m not joking, 187 job applications; where more than half I’m sure don’t get read and the others are kept “on file”. It’s really sad how many persons are unemployed. I think I will join the set of Lucians who leave their country to have a better life because staying here is depressing. There are no jobs for me, for the youth, for us.

~~~~~~ Cuz~~~~~~
You as a parent are responsible for your child’s success or failure initially. Even though there is an Education Minister who sets the curriculum for the schools, if you as a parent feel that it is not right or don’t agree then you need to do something about it, be it extra lessons or home schooled totally.

The Government does a one size fits all and children and young people slip through the net and fail to learn and fail to succeed if some one does not intervene to change that.

The child also has a responsibility to you as the parent as well as themselves to learn what they can but also if they are unable they need to be able to ask for help to do so.

If a parent is unable to help the child they should engage a school leaver for extra lessons to help the school leaver to retain what they have learnt while they teach the younger child to learn.

~~~~~~Alice~~~~~~
I have friends just like “Depressed and Jobless, they too have done the job applications just as much as HIM/HER. I’ve spoken to children on buses and on the streets. They are all depressed and frustrated. Our young people need the experience.