On Wednesday, April 11, 2012 the Department of Labor Affairs, Section Labor Market-Job Placement held a workshop on “Find, Get & Keep the Job: The Key to your future” for the first batch of participants of the Social Economic Initiative (SEI) Project: Employability through Training.”
The afternoon started with the opening by Shandah Phillips of Labor Affairs. Nyakomi Richardson also of Labor Affairs made a presentation to the participants on finding, keeping and getting the job along with preparations for the labor market beyond the SEI project.
In addition to the presentation, the session was very interactive and engaging with Shandah Phillips and Dennissen Phlilips both of Labor Affairs doing role play on do’s and don’ts of proper interview techniques.
“Embrace the project and products/services being offered to you as participants of this program, as the job coach will be working directly with you and your supervisor at your place of employment, this is an opportunity that you never had in previous jobs,” said Peggy-Ann Dros-Richardson, Head of Labor Affairs.
The participants are very enthusiastic and are happy that they have been given this opportunity to enter the job with training. At the end of the session all of the participants were given their participant agreement contracts, which they all signed.
Raquel Dorsan, Job Coach stated to the participants that she is very happy that they are starting, and complemented them all for sticking through the preparations, and urged them to make use of the information that was offered to them, and to remember to dress professional at all times.
The official training starts on Monday, April 16, 2012 at the Belvedere Community Center for the “Employability through Training” participants.
Minister of Public Health Social Development & Training, Cornelius De Weever stated that “we must invest in our SEI participants to ensure that they are given a fair chance to enter the labor market, and they must take full advantage of these workshops.”
The goal of the project “Employability through Training” is to assist unskilled unemployed individuals to acquire basic job skills and knowledge to help bridge the gap between them and suitable employment within the local labor market by offering specialized training and mediation for a period of two and a half years. This will allow the participants to not only get familiar with the supply and demand, but will also develop their social, communicative and professional work related skills which will motivate them to actively participate in the local labor market.