Leslie Miller announces 'Career Path Academies'

Fri, Sep 30th 2011, 09:37 AM

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) proposes to implement 'Career Path Academies' to expand technical and vocational training and apprenticeship opportunities for 15,000 young people annually, former Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller announced last night.
Miller spoke at the PLP's Job Creation and Empowerment Summit at Workers House on Tonique Williams-Darling Highway.
He is the party's candidate for Blue Hills in the next general election, a seat he held between 2002 and 2007.
"We will identify the needs of the labor market, and provide these students with the skills to fill those positions," Miller said.
He added that the PLP would also establish a proper screening program to identify remedial students in all schools from grade 10 and move them into technical classes where they concentrate on two core subjects -- English and Mathematics and more technical training.
All students will be required to pass the two core subjects in order to graduate under the plan.
The process of identifying and streamlining the students will be a combined effort of trained guidance counselors, teachers, parents and the students themselves, Miller said.
"These changes will cause improvement in the student's behavior as they will be motivated to learn new skills," he added.
"We will see improved morale and building of self-confidence in students who have not excelled in the traditional classroom setting; reduction in crime as the potential to drop out of school will be reduced, i.e. less idle young persons sitting on the blocks; [and] reduced demands on parents for financial support, as the apprenticeship program will provide minimal wages to participants."
Miller said the program would guarantee jobs as certain fields such as vehicle mechanics cannot be outsourced overseas.
He said there would be an opportunity to implement an exchange program where students can work overseas at affiliated institutes and vice-versa.
Miller said the Career Path Academies will offer a diverse range of vocational and technical studies, from surveying, to design, to building and more.
"We will strengthen the relationship between the government and the private sector to ensure young people are receiving the skills they need to enter the workforce as quickly and as successfully as possible," he said.
"Giving our young people the education and skills and training they need is not a luxury -- it's a necessity.  Investing in this generation is something we must do as a nation.
"And we want to extend training as well, to those unemployed Bahamians with our new Skills Upgrade Requirement."
Miller said everyone receiving unemployment benefits will be required to attend a technical and vocational course.
"We need to be a nation of productive citizens; all of us should have the dignity of work, the honor of supporting ourselves and our families," he said.
"And we must train Bahamians to replace the thousands of foreign workers across the length and breadth of The Bahamas."
The current administration recently introduced a job training and readiness program.
At the launch several weeks ago, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham acknowledged that the need for jobs in The Bahamas is great, and he encouraged participants to take full advantage of the opportunity as current job prospects are slim.
The program is expected to employ thousands of Bahamians over the next year, but even with the initiative, Ingraham pointed out that thousands of Bahamians will remain on the unemployment line.
According to government officials, 12,800 Bahamians signed up for the program.  However, the $25 million program is only designed to accommodate 3,000 people.

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