St. Maarten News – Minister of General Affairs William Marlin defended his Youth Employment Fund plan in parliament on Tuesday evening. He said that the employability through training program, initiated in 2011 by then Minister of Labor Cornelius de Weever, in the end just landed seventeen participants a job at a cost of $30,000 a head.
“The Youth Employment Fund aims to create 200 jobs,” Marlin said.
The idea is to give youngsters a shot at a job, while the fund takes care of their salaries and social premiums for a year. The minister also wants to attach an obligatory savings program to this initiative to teach youngsters to save money.
The employability through training initiative in 2011 was ambitious, both in its objectives and its budget. The ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor made 913,000 guilders (a bit more than $510,000) available for it. The intention was to train 250 people and to make sure they got a job after the completion of their training.
Marlin said that this program did not work for youngsters who have left school and would have to go back to training and getting nothing for it. The results of the program support this notion.
Youth Employment Fund to give 200 youngsters job
