Freeport News Reporter
The West Grand Bahama Youth Development Association will be spearheading the technical school being developed by BORCO/Vopak Terminal Bahamas.
This was revealed by the Association's director Fred Delancy during his address to the Rotary Club of Lucaya yesterday.
The Association, formed in 1992, currently hosts a Pre-Technology Training Program for students who may have had to leave high school because of poor academic performance or behavioural problems.
"These students basically were on the street wreaking havoc on the society," Delancy explained to the Rotarians.
"We decided through the association to do something about it so we implemented what we called a pre-technology training program and the whole idea was to expose them to a number of different technical areas so that they would be better equipped when it comes to choosing careers in the future."
Delancy said the value of earning a technical education is often overlooked by many students. The program however, aims to convince them that there are some very exciting, challenging and financially rewarding opportunities which await them through technical education.
"The carrot that we dangle before them is the job. We prepare them for the workplace," he explained.
After the students have successfully completed their training, they will begin a one-month job training program.
"For the most part, the companies who partner with us, are still willing in spite of the depressed company, to hire these persons full-time. So, the vast majority of our people remain employed."
Delancy expressed his thanks to those companies for their support of the program.
He also thanked the Grand Bahama Port Authority for its assistance over the years.
"The Port gave us a facility in Hawksbill to work from and we're in the process of trying to renovate that facility," he explained.
It also provided seven scholarships to young persons to attend the pre-technology program.
Additionally, the GBPA has committed to providing the association with two acres of land in the Hawksbill area to construct its own facility. That project is expected to commence sometime this year, he noted.
Meanwhile, the Association will work closely with BORCO, he explained, to establish the technical training institute.
Last week, during the Grand Bahama Business Outlook, BORCO's Managing Di-rector Raymond Jones announced that BOR-CO will launch its "BORCO Foundation" in March 2010, which will facilitate the creation of a technical school that will train and certify up to 30 local welders and technicians per year. The cost, he said, will be fully funded by the company.
On Tuesday, Delancy explained that the program will be run by the association, which will provide the instruction.
"We did the proposal for BORCO and the association will actually be running the day to day affairs of the technical training institute though the BORCO foundation," he said.
"BORCO is prepared to invest I think ... close to $500,000 in creating the best technical educational experience possible for our youngsters so I think that's something good that we can be proud of. We are about to reduce the amount of persons that we have to bring into the country to perform semi-skilled and skilled work and so therefore we thank BORCO for that."
Delancy also announced plans for the association's annual Sports Jamboree and Career Fair which will take place later this month.
"The whole idea is to bring young people together through sports and at the same time expose them to the various careers which are available through technical education. Most of our major industrial companies will be there. There will be job applications, for those companies looking for people," he shared.
"In spite of what has happened with our local and world economy, technical jobs are still available. The only problem is our young people are not applying themselves to become trained and qualified to take advantage of these opportunities."
The program aims to make them aware of all that is available to them once they have the right skills, he added.
"We are partnering with all of our major industrial partners to make sure this becomes a reality."
