Francis Richards instructing a Trainee Inmate.
INTRODUCTION
“What you think you become, what you feel you attract, what you imagine you create”, notes Jules Pascal, SkYE’s Country Coordinator in Dominica, quoting Buddha. He goes on to explain:
This reality would never be achieved in the lives of many individuals without the positive support from others who played a role in impacting their thinking. The SkYE programme, geared at improving employability and strengthening the workforce, plays that role in being able to impact the lives of many young men and women who would otherwise remain unskilled and unemployed. Through Technical Vocational Education and Training they are now enabled to think positively as contributors, to feel a sense of achievement, and to begin creating opportunities for themselves.
THE INSTRUCTOR – FRANCIS (MAJOR) RICHARDS
A former Scout, Cadet, and vocal advocate for youth development, Francis Richards (affectionately known as Major) has been linked with the Dominica government’s Youth Development Division for over 23 years as a Youth Skills Instructor/Trainer conducting Wood Craft training courses. His most recent engagement occurred at the State Prison, January to March 2020. Francis laments the lack of opportunities for the youth to be meaningfully engaged in activities which will help them to realize their true potential. Over the years, this had led him to create his own small business enterprise called ‘Rich Gems Unlimited’.
Francis is self-employed and has enthusiastically attended and completed all SkYE’s Capacity Building Training provided by Lincoln College from the UK. He emphasizes that his new methodical approach to training and preparation can be attributed to the connection with SkYE and Lincoln College. He says SkYE’s inputs gave him a new vision to training, “by enabling me to use a more structured approach and a process that can be evaluated, and its impact and success measured. This is something that was not existent before”.
Armed with this new approach Francis is now delivering his own training with a specific plan and sense of purpose and not just for the mere fun of it. He knows that he is contributing tangibly to a young person’s future by reducing poverty through self-reliance, and to building a more sustainable economy. Since being with SkYE he has developed a positive mindset change which can be seen in the preparation of his training syllabus. He has enhanced his learning capacity by participating in forums which has contributed to new ideas and designs which he enthusiastically develops in his workshop for Trainees.
A YOUTH ADVOCATE
Following his most recent training with young men serving short prison sentences, Francis has renewed hope. He reiterated his vision of “getting assistance for youth particularly those recently trained to becoming self-employed through the establishment of their own small business”. He has begun to advocate on behalf of such persons by engaging Government and other stakeholders. The establishment of a small enterprises by trainee inmates upon their release from State Prison would be his dream come true. At the same time, he’s consciously helping achieve SkYE’s aim to tackle disadvantage and promote economic growth by increasing profitability of enterprises and raising household incomes through a skills wage premium. He offers his trainees an opportunity for a better life on the right side of the law.
In total the number of persons whose lives have been touched by SkYE’s four-month training intervention with the Youth Development Division stands at 65, a figure which is projected to reach over 200. Francis is expecting to be engaged again as Instructor at the State Prison where officials are looking at continuing the teaching of such skills to another group of inmates with the hope of establishing a permanent Wood Craft shop as part of a sustainable rehabilitation program at the institution.
FACTS
The 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.
SkYE partnered with the Lincoln College, UK to deliver the training of trainers to gain the TQUK Level 3 Award in Education and Training. This provides a strong foundation to enable progression to further teaching, training, assessment and internal quality assurance qualifications and is ideal for those with no previous formal qualifications.
