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Gov't to expand HOPE programme

Published:Saturday | February 15, 2020 | 3:11 PM
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (third left), encourages recipients of the Jamaica Labour Party National Scholarship, who will be doing volunteer work, under the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme Volunteer Project. They are (from second left): Raimona Gowie-Roberts; Demar Brown; Sebastian Lawrence; Nile Anderson; and Daniel Meggo. Occasion was a HOPE Volunteer Project event, held at Jamaica House on February 13. At left is National Coordinator of the HOPE Programme, Lt. Col. Martin Rickman.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the Government is to expand the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme, in partnership with the private sector.

 Launched in May 2017, the HOPE Programme provides educational and job opportunities for young people. The initiative is targeted at persons aged 18 to 24 who are not employed or enrolled in a school or training programme.

“I will be meeting with members of the private sector to see how they can come on board to create opportunities for employment and engagement for young people, where the Government will provide the training and the supervision," Holness said at a press briefing held at Jamaica House on Thursday.

"If the private sector could help us with the stipend and the opportunities and the areas of work, they get the benefit of the labour, while the persons who are under the programme, they [would] get the benefit of the training. So, we are going to engage the private sector to expand the programme,” Holness added.

So far, more than 20,000 persons have been trained through the HOPE Programme.

“If the private sector truly comes on board… who knows, maybe in the first year we could add 2,000 to 3,000 more [young people] and as it goes along, between private sector and government, we could possibly be engaging, on a yearly basis, 50,000 youngsters. That would truly put a dent on this whole business of being an unattached youngster,” the Prime Minister said.

Adding that a volunteering aspect of the programme is being rolled out, Holness noted that volunteering develops character and personality. 

National Coordinator of the HOPE Programme, Lt. Col. Martin Rickman, said the objective of the HOPE Volunteer Project is to build out a cadre of young persons across the country who are more engaged in nation-building activities through their involvement in volunteerism.

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