The application date for government’s Business Outreach and Placement Program (BOPP), commonly known as the summer job program, has been extended to June 13. The firm Marketing.sx has been contracted by government (the Department of Youth Affairs) to guide BOPP this year. The company views the BOPP program as an important vessel for instilling work ethic and work experience based on a young person’s career ambition.
Thus far, Marketing.sx has attracted 25 companies that will be participating in the program. The extension to June 13 gives young people one last opportunity to register for the program. Once registration is closed, the next step in the program is the interview aspect of the program.
Marketing.SX will be conducting all interviews and coordinate the placement process of the registered youth based on the number of job openings available. This will be followed by three training sessions for the youngsters before they enter the work place.
In the past, the BOPP program included training sessions, one for interview preparation and one for workplace preparation. However having evaluated looked at the program, Marketing.sx and believed that it would be pertinent to include a third training session to bridge the interview process with the workplace: a team building and crew resource training session geared at equipping students with 21st century learning and working skills that require effective team building and resource management.
When the program concludes in early August, a debriefing session and closing ceremony will be held. “This work placement project is not just about giving the youth things to do, but ensuring their experience has taught them things, and allowing them the opportunity to share these experiences with their peers,” Director of Marketing.sx Rolando Brison said.
“The debriefing session will be used as a more formal means of getting feedback from students on their work experiences. In this session, the role of our team is mostly limited to facilitating discussion about the job market as it is in the eyes of our youth, a similar approach to that of the Round Table Conference held by the youth department last year. We will use this session as the first step to our research and feedback report to the Department of Youth Affairs,” he said.
Interested young people can contact the Department of Youth Affairs at 54-22056, 54-23873 or email yo**********@si************.org. The office is located across of the Post Office in Philipsburg. The BOPP also has a Facebook page: www.facebook.com/sxmbopp