DECEMBER News /

Twenty four students from three city schools in Georgetown, Guyana are currently engaged in a youth employment initiative through which they will learn business management skills.  This is part of the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme Program being carried out by the YES Guyana Network (YESGY) through its host agency, Volunteer Youth Corps (VYC).  The project targets in-school youth ages 14 to 15, to raise awareness around the unemployment issues facing young people and to promote entrepreneurship as a first choice of career.

The training program will teach the students how to register a business, acquire the knowledge and techniques to prepare a business plan, and to gain the necessary skills to manage an enterprise.

The Stabroek News, a Guyanese newspaper, ran an article recently on the workshops that were held at the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest).   They quoted the Director of Go-Invest, Geoffrey Da Silva, as noting that the students might be "considering to migrate [and that is] your democratic right." However, he encouraged them to think positively and identify successful business ventures that could allow them to earn a decent living in their country. He pledged to have successful entrepreneurs speak with the students during the training, an idea which VYC has incorporated into the program. He additionally told the students that they were sitting in chairs where local and foreign investors have sat and discussed investment opportunities and, as such, it was a very appropriate venue.

It is hoped  that the young people participating in the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme Program will someday occupy those seats to promote investment in the opportunities that they identify.   For now, it is sufficient to say that the program is planting the seed for entrepreneurship and encouraging young people to be proactive about their own futures.