This year's Graduates, are next year's Voters
In approximately three months, about 1,000 high school students from both public and private schools will be graduating and probably entering the world of work for the first time in their young lives.
But are they really ready for the challenge that lies ahead? Have they, over the course of their five years in high school, learnt the skills and discipline that are necessary to succeed in the world of adulthood and responsibility?
These are the questions that young people, their teachers, parents and educators should begin to ask themselves as these workers of the future wind down their last days towards the end of school and the beginning of a new life.
Employers, government and business owners need to also ask themselves some serious questions. Employers particularly need to inquire also of themselves whether they are ready for these young people and whether there is room in their work force to accommodate these graduates?
Employers and government need to begin to look at this new crop of youth our leaders of tomorrow and decide to make a conscious decision to invest in training them with the necessary skills to succeed in the real world.
In these tough times, where budget cuts and belt tightening has become a part of the world's global economic structure, there are increasingly fewer and fewer spaces in companies. Job opportunities, especially for 'green' youth are few.
The authorities must pay serious attention to this issue now. While we understand that the forecast may be bleak, we feel that a 'marshal plan' of sorts needs to be put in place immediately, in an effort to ensure that teenagers leaving school in three months are not going to be unoccupied.
We have already had three tragic teenage deaths this year. We do not need any more added to this toll because youth are idle, lack supervision and community-wide activities to engage their minds.
Private companies, especially financial institutions who are taking advantage of the tax-free economy here, should be urged to pitch in and help provide some funding to ensure that a training plan, preferably on island for our young people becomes a reality.
Such a plan should definitely be technologically driven. We see many young people from Jamaica and India who are obtaining training in their respective nations as IT professionals.
We in the Cayman Islands need to be providing the training ground to groom our own young people to take up employment in these fields instead of consistently having to rely on import labour.
Some students we are sure, will go on to the Cayman Island Community College to pursue their associate's degree. Let us look at the curriculum here and ensure we are graduating a crop of young minds that are marketable and qualified to operate with the discipline to service the international markets we serve.
We cannot afford to sit idly by and continue to rely on import labor. We have the power and the resources to mold our leaders of tomorrow to ensure that this nation and its people continue to travel along the prosperous road that we now enjoy.
It is time to do as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child advises to give the child the best we have to offer.
Many who graduate this year, will be next year's electors.