Charlestown, Nevis (November 15, 2013) — The People’s Employment Programme (PEP) has turned its training focus on the island of Nevis, with the first batch of 40 trainees having started courses in cosmetology and culinary arts on Monday November 11 at the Jessups Community Centre.
“This is the first training session for the People’s Employment Programme here in Nevis,” said PEP coordinator in Nevis, Ms Kerlyn Jones. “In St. Kitts they have several training sites in cosmetology, in hospitality, in construction, masonry and others. So this morning for us to launch officially our training for cosmetology and culinary arts, it is a great day.”
Each course will have twenty trainees, but at the opening ceremony only 26 were present as the vetting process for the others had not been completed. However, according to Ms Jones, all had reported by Thursday, and on Friday November 15 she was to take the two groups through life skills training.
A respected regional trainer, Mr Hensley Daniel, has been retained as the PEP Training Coordinator for Nevis. Mr Michael Henville is the facilitator for the culinary arts programme, while Ms Shauna Browne is the facilitator for the cosmetology programme.
According to Ms Jones, cosmetology training will be from 9am to 3pm Monday to Thursday, and the culinary training will be from 1pm to 6pm on the same four days. On Fridays the two classes will be combined to undertake life skills training, starting at 9 am, with guest facilitators coming in to talk to them.
She advised them that if for any reason they experienced difficulties during the programme, that they overcome it “and think about what’s at the end of the training: When you get that piece of paper to say that you are certified and that you can go anywhere and get that job that you know that you want, and you have a skill that will be with you for the rest of your life.”
Mr Hensley Daniel told the participants that the training that had been put together was developed by the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) centre in St. Kitts and across the Caribbean. After the training, he told them that they could expected to go anywhere in the Caribbean and function, and be paid as a skilled persons.
“The training will last six months and at the end of the first three we do an evaluation and see how we are going,” observed Mr Daniel. “If we train for six months in doing anything consistently daily, weekly, at the end of the six months you just have to be good: There are no two ways about that. You will be very good.”
Mr Daniel told the course participants that the idea of having them trained was to empower them to make money through their skills, and to lead decent lives. He however advised them against thinking that they are doing something less than other people because Nevis is a smaller place.
“Just to let you know that the same training manual that you have there is the same manual that is in St. Kitts, the same one used across the OECS, same one used across CARICOM, and when you get your training there are 91 countries where you can go to practise your craft,” concluded Mr Daniel.