EDITORIAL

Creating jobs for our youth

Tuesday,  August 2, 2005

This publishing group like many other businesses and organisations have enjoyed the pleasure of some of the presence of Cayman’s young school students in their offices, stores and sites recently, with the summer work placement scheme.

Such programmes create enormous mutual benefit for both parties.

The young students are exposed to the world of work and get a snap shot of career choices to help them make decisions about their future aims, and employers enjoy a little youthful exuberance and enthusiasm around their workplaces as well as an opportunity to test drive potential future employees.

It is perhaps therefore time to take a closer look at the placement programme and see if it cannot be extended to create continuity and increase the benefits to both employers and students.

Perhaps during term time older students who are about to leave school or move on to university could spend one day or a couple of mornings or afternoons each week with an employer within a sector that interests them.

This would offer the young students an even better way to assess if their chosen subjects at school or university are relevant for the future, if they intend to choose that particular career path and more importantly if the work really suits them.

In turn it would also give employers the opportunity to literally train youngsters on the job. Moreover it would help to develop closer relationships between employers and the students and hopefully encourage some educational sponsorship.

One of the criticisms that has been hailed constantly at the private sector is that not enough Caymanians are promoted to senior positions and within the offshore sector especially, companies are accused of always seeking outside talent to fill key positions.

Creating a closer relationship between schools and the business community would perhaps help to address the so called ‘glass ceiling’ for Caymanians.

Employers would hopefully help point the students in a career direction and students will benefit from the on-the-job training that employers can offer making them more valuable commodities when they enter the job market for real later in their lives.

High schools too could listen to the needs of employers and help shape a curriculum for older students which is more vocationally oriented for those interested in pursuing specific career paths.

With the absence of a programme for vocational training offering courses geared towards specific jobs and the needs of the workplace, schools must step in to help the transition between the academic study children take and the practical needs of many employers.

Whether youngsters wish to become bankers or plumbers all students need to undertake some form of practical vocational study that better prepares them for the working world.

This year finding placements for all of Cayman’s students proved more difficult with so many businesses still upside down in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, which affected the ability of some organisations to offer placements because they didn’t think they could offer summer posts when some youngsters have so little experience of any kind of the work place.

If the schools can help to introduce slightly more work- focused skills, more employers will be willing to join in the scheme which in turn will help the students improve on the basics they acquired in school.

There is clearly a need for schools and businesses to work more closely together to create more and better opportunities for our youngsters and provide them with a secure future.

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