MARIGOT–A group of young people from the Sandy Ground “On the Move Insertion” association recently obtained their licences to drive or operate heavy equipment, and a presentation was made on Wednesday morning at the offices of District Council Six.
Some 13 young people enrolled in the training course, 80 per cent of which was financed by the State and 20 per cent by the Collectivité.
These young people will now be able to find jobs operating heavy equipment such as driving backhoes. Many of the youngsters involved in the insertion projects in Sandy Ground are only on contracts for up to two years and will need to seek more permanent employment.
District Six representative Georges Richardson expressed satisfaction that training programmes are bearing fruit and putting disadvantaged young people on the right path to integrate into society. He noted at least 10 of the course attendees are former inmates of the prison in Guadeloupe who are making a conscious effort to rebuild their lives.
“Part of the association’s role is to send young people to get trained so they can enter the labour market and find a job in order to integrate properly into society” explained Richardson. “Many of them actually requested to do this course.
“Passing this course is not only good for the association, but good for the youngsters to be on the right track. There are not enough words to thank the State for its contribution and the previous Aline Hanson administration had also played a major role in helping the youth” he added.
Richardson said it would be very unwise for local government to cut back on programmes, subventions and undo good work that has already been done by associations to help prevent delinquency.
“That would be like shooting yourself in the foot. Government would then be responsible for the deterioration of insertion programmes. With 65 per cent of the population made up of young people the reality is that delinquency is on the rise. It doesn’t make sense to kill the good work of an association. We need to have a cohesive bond between all associations to work together to prevent delinquency and uplift the image of the island which depends solely on tourism.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/68189-13-obtain-their-licences-to-operate-heavy-equipment
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