BACKGROUND – AN ESTABLISHED, REPUTABLE AND INCLUSIVE TRAINING PROVIDER
Youth Development Division (YDD), a sub-department of the Ministry of Education in Dominica, has long been established as a training provider. YDD is known throughout the length and breadth of Dominica as an entity that seeks to enhance the lives of disadvantaged youths, particularly in the most impoverished communities. Greatly appreciating the need for inclusive training practices that provide equality and equity of access and participation, YDD also partners with the Dominica State Prison to provide training to young inmates to aid their rehabilitation in to society once they are released.
YDD ALSO LEARNING UNDER SkYE – INSTITUTIONAL STRENGHENING
YDD employees have acknowledged some of the organisation’s shortcomings that were brought to the fore by the stipulations of the UKaid funded Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE) programme, particularly in relation to project documentation and monitoring and evaluation. By their own account, the processes and practices that the Programme required encouraged them to review and make relevant changes to their own processes and practices.
Those changes have resulted in more assured quality of YDD administration and training provision. YDD now engages in better documentation habits, utilizes continuous monitoring and evaluation to inform trainer and trainee capacity building needs, and makes a greater effort to improve its inclusive practices. The accounts below are testament to the benefits of SkYE’s intervention in improving YDD’s practices and performance:
Moreover, SkYE has provided YDD with best practice learning modalities to improve the quality of training provided to trainees. There is greater understanding and accommodation for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds grounds, especially for persons with disabilities. The lessons learned and changes made to the organizational processes and practices are likely to augur well for YDD’s capacity to attract and retain trainees and provide quality training to all.
FACTS
Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE) is a four-year, UKaid funded programme to provide certified skills training for 6,000 disadvantaged young people, including those challenged by disability, in four Eastern Caribbean countries: Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines. The Programme will develop a more productive and inclusive workforce in sectors with good economic growth potential.
SkYE is supporting national training authorities and training providers to make systemic improvements to the development, delivery and quality assurance of technical, vocational education and training (TVET) in the four focus islands through targeted capacity building.
