NEO hosts job placement workshop this week

New Employment Opportunities for Youth (NEO) Jamaica, in conjunction with the International Youth Foundation (IYF), will be hosting a three-day job placement workshop for professionals from HEART Trust/NTA, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, D&G Foundation, and The MultiCare Youth Foundation at the Four Seasons Hotel from this Tuesday, July 10 to Thursday, July 12.

It is the final workshop in a series of youth employability training that has included life skills training, effective teaching strategies, and career guidance.

Workshop organisers said the capacity strengthening services are aimed at supporting schools, training centres, employment offices, among others, to establish, improve and/or integrate job placement services in their youth employability programmes.

NEO Project Coordinator Barrington Bryce said the expected result of the workshop is “the provision of systems and processes to link labour market demand with labour supply, and to find more and better jobs for young people”.

“The workshop is designed to increase relevant competencies of job placement managers that work directly with youth and their guardians,” said Bryce.

These competencies include offering support to young people to meet their particular needs and place them in jobs, training young people in skills they need to obtain employment, managing relationships with employers, and effectively managing job vacancy information.

The scope of the job placement services is not limited to establishing a relationship between youth and employers, but also incorporates a series of preparatory and complementary services that seek to strengthen young people’s’ employability skills, Bryce explained. Focus will be placed on helping youth remain active and productive throughout their lives by developing key competencies.

In welcoming the workshop, Alicia Glasgow Gentles, executive director of the MultiCare Youth Foundation, the executing agency of NEO Jamaica, indicated that “increasingly, training institutions, employers, and policymakers are finding that in order for poor youth to succeed in today’s rapidly changing and globalised world, they need specialised support to help them transition from training to work”.

NEO Jamaica is part of a comprehensive and targeted suite of employment programmes and services that the MultiCare Youth Foundation delivers to help at-risk youth across a broader spectrum of needs to improve their skills and find work.

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