The Youth Apprenticeship Program, it's where young people who've struggled with traditional schooling can still get an opportunity to become employable by getting training in technical and vocational skills.
It's been running since 2010, and in that time, 1,200 graduates have passed through the program.
But, there's never been any real assessment of the program's performance. That's up until this week, when representatives of the International Labor Organization came to do just that. They've been closely examining the process, and they've talked to the coordinating team, the graduates, and the partner organizations within the private sector where the graduates train, and are eventually employed.
Today, we stopped by to find out how the Youth Apprenticeship Program has been doing in its 8 years of existence:
Hassan Ndahi - Representative, ILO
"We met all the stakeholders. So, we got a good perspective as to what is their opinion as to the apprenticeship system here in Belize."
"We have over 66 million people around the world, young people that are out of employment, over 140 + that are at jobs, but not really a good job. And so, it is a concern for the ILO, just like it a concern - unemployment is a concern for people here in the region."
"When we visited the employers, particularly those who have been hiring the apprentices, some of them, maybe quite a lot of them have good things to say about the young people coming in. But, they also have some negative things to say about some of the young people coming, and there are reasons for that. Before you send - one of the concerns is that most them are not prepared to begin work."
Margarita Gomez - Director, Employment Training, Ministry of Education
"We are very much interested because our focus at the Ministry of Education, particularly as it relates to providing skills training to the young people. The focus is always on providing quality standards and particularly relevance to what is needed out in the business sector."
"We have not done an official formal evaluation of our apprenticeship program since it started. So, at this point, I think it's relevant for us to see where we stand, where we can improve, and how we can bridge the gap in providing the training needs that the employers need."
Dianne Finnegan - Coordinator, Youth Apprenticeship Program
"If it was up to me to make those changes - most of those changes that they are seeing, and most of the recommendations that are being been made are things that we spoke about among ourselves about what we see would take the apprenticeship program to another level. So, I really leave these findings to the Ministry to take it up with Cabinet."
Phillip Ramirez - Owner, Ramirez AC and Electrical Company
"For the past 3 years, I think, we've been accepting trainees that come from the Youth Apprenticeship Program. And so far, we have good results with them. There is a little bit of tweaking here and there, but at the end of the day, we support it because we could see where it's going."
Finnegan says that she hopes more employers will come forward and meet the Government half way because the apprentices have to be paid while they're on training.
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