MEET SHERNE
Sherne Jno Finn-Vigilant is a 26 year-old school teacher who hails from the village of La Plaine in southeastern Dominica. She has successfully turned her passion for craft and design into a lucrative small business. Sherne provides a printing service for school and business documents and products such as t-shirts and themed-based packages for different occasions.
IMPROVING BUSINESS PRACTICE
Products desinged by Sherne
Although Sherne had already commenced her business, when the opportunity came to undertake entrepreneurship training, she did not refuse. Sherne found the training advertisement through a work colleague and enrolled in the SkYE funded Dominica Youth Business Trust (DYBT) Community Outreach Entrepreneurial Training.
When asked about her training experience, Sherne had this to say, “This training just added extra. During the programme, I’ve learnt a lot about marketing, money management and more. Marketing really stood out to me mostly because I’m not really a social media person and it was really impressed upon me that my business was lacking in that area. It really pushed me to be more creative and find ways to build on my social media presence”. Sherne also received great support and motivation from her family – this propelled her further to tap deeper into her creativity and allowed her to attract more customers and build the business. Upon completion of her training, Sherne received the DYBT Award for Outstanding Young Female Entrepreneur 2022.
THE FUTURE
Sherne plans to expand her business in the future and to create employment for young people in her local community district. She also believes that the trained she completed at DYBT can be beneficial to any young person interested in starting a business. “It will help them focus on what exactly they are looking to undertake, step-by-step assistance will be provided and knowledge in how to manage finances”.
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.
