6,000 jobs in three months - Stern

... Junior minister says small business sector generates huge number of jobs

Michael Stern, the state minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce is claiming that close to 6,000 jobs have been created over the past three months in the small-business sector.

Stern made the claim during the launch of the 'I am the Change' entrepreneurship programme at the offices of Jamaica Trade and Invest (JAMPRO) last week.

He pointed to findings of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor which listed Jamaica among the most entrepreneurial countries in world.

According to the Monitor entrepreneurial activity accounted for 18.9 per cent of Jamaica's gross domestic product from 2001 to 2009 and 22.7 per cent in 2009.

More growth

"Jamaica continues to score high in various rates of entrepreneurial activities, but we still need to translate these positives into more start-ups, more jobs and more growth," Stern said as he embraced the developmental role the "I am the Change" entrepreneurship programme would play in this regard.

The "I am the Change" entrepreneurship programme, conceptualised by Kimala Bennett, managing director of The Business Lab, was launched under the ambit of the Centres of Excellence programme, an initiative driven by the Mutual Building Societies Foundation, which was established by The Victoria Mutual Building Society and Jamaica National Building Society.

The entrepreneurship programme is being co-sponsored by the Digicel Foundation.

Special advisor to the minister of education, Ruel Reid, who also spoke at the launch, added that the current low interest rate environment provided good opportunities for businesses.

"The environment of low interest rates should be a time for investment.

"We can't wait on all the variables to be perfect because entrepreneurship must look to the future and we must know that our collective actions are what will lead to changes we want in the future," he said.

However, Reid said the island's education system needs to be more responsive to the growing need for entrepreneurial training and development in order to prepare young people for emerging business opportunities.

The 16-month-long "I am the Change" initiative will cater to some 4,000 students from six rural-based high schools under the Centres of Excellence initiative.

The schools are: Porus and Mile Gully High in Manchester; McGrath High in St Catherine; Seaforth High in St Thomas; Green Pond High in St James and Godfrey Stewart High in Westmoreland.

CAPTION: Ruel Reid (right), principal of Jamaica College and special advisor to the minister of education, gives the ministry's endorsement of the 'I am the Change' young entrepre-neurship programme on Wednesday at Jamaica Trade and Invest's Trafalgar Road, New Kingston, offices. Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Michael Stern (left) and Earl Jarrett (second left), chairman of the Mutual Building Societies Foundation, also spoke at the launch hosted by the Foundation's programme manager Dr Renee Rattray (second right). - Photo by Mel Cooke