YUTE gets $20m boost from Scotia

The Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) programme an initiative of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), is to benefit from a $20-million donation from Scotiabank.

The bank made the donation yesterday.

Jacqueline Sharp, Scotiabank's executive vice-president and chief financial officer, said, "The long-term improvements in our economy require the right combination of low interest rates and financial products and services that facilitate the expansion and creation of businesses, as well as a strategic approach to increasing the marketability of young people and the creation of entrepreneurs."

Joseph M. Matalon, president of the PSOJ, said YUTE requires a total investment of $847 million over a two-and-a-half-year period, and will support 2,200 young people by placing them in ready jobs, apprenticeship programmes, and by creating sustainable enterprises.

"We will alleviate the frustrations of a generation by increasing individual marketability, providing actual employment opportunities, and stimulating small businesses, thereby enabling young people in the inner city to make a solid contribution to the gross domestic product and Jamaica's development," he said.

YUTE is a private-sector coalition that focuses on some of the root causes of violence and youth unemployment through a two-year programmatic approach.