Por Robert Damon

The Youth Desk at the CARICOM Secretariat is close to finalizing a manual that will be used to equip young people throughout the region with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to run a business successfully.

Much of the content and activities in the manual, dubbed Creativity for Employment and Business Opportunities (CEBO), were fine tuned during a February 8 to 11 workshop that was held in St Kitts.

 

CARICOM’s Deputy Program Manager for Youth Dr Heather Johnson, who chaired the meeting, described the sessions as productive and noted her pleasure with the contributions from the participants.

CEBO is the CARICOM Secretariat’s response to the issues raised in the report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (CCYD), which highlighted that the region has the highest rate of unemployment for persons under the age of 30.

The instructional document was first developed in October 2011, when members of the public and private sector and civil society agencies throughout the region convened in St Kitts. Some of the information included in CEBO has been adapted from the BYBT manual.

The final draft of the document is due in the coming weeks and officials plan to test the CEBO manual in St Kitts and Nevis