May 29, 2017: `
Members of Staff of the On the Job Training Programme (OJT Programme) will receive severance payments on Monday, May 29, 2017. This is the final phase in the restructuring of the OJT Programme. Payments were prepared for one hundred and six persons on the payroll, with respective pay-outs being made commensurate with tenure with the Programme.
Staff of the Programme who will collect their cheques at the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies will have the benefit of support services provided by the Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development, which has the remit for the OJT Programme. Representatives from the Ministry’s National Employment Services Unit, Co-operative Development Division, National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited (NEDCO) and the FairShare Programme will be on-site for persons seeking either employment or opportunities in entrepreneurship or setting up a Co-operative. Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) services will also be provided by a recognised Agency.
The re-aligned OJT Programme, which will begin on May 31, 2017, sees a new, stream-lined organizational structure that removes the duplication in several Support Unit areas at both the Ministry and the OJT Programme. This new structure has fourteen positions and provides for sixty-two persons; of the sixty-two persons, forty persons will be employed on Contract and twenty-two persons will be part of positions on the establishment of the Ministry.
The OJTP's main objective is aligned to Government's Policy and linked to the Ministry's Action Plan. This objective is an integration of On the Job Trainees into productive and sustainable employment after training. The new restructured OJTP will therefore place emphasis on a robust training and certification programme and implement a more effective placement procedure with emphasis on quality as opposed to quantity.
The recruitment for staff for the restructured OJT Programme was conducted over a three-month period. Of the forty persons on Contract in the new organizational structure, twenty of these posts are being filled by persons who were previously employed with the OJT Programme. These persons applied for positions that were publicly advertised, went through the interview process and after being assessed with other persons applying for the positions, were successful candidates and were given letters of offer of employment.
Trainees on the OJT Programme can be assured of the continuity of the OJT Programme and that there will be some familiar faces to address their expected concerns in this new phase of the Programme.
The three priority areas for the new OJT Programme as of May 31, 2017 will be in the first instance, the timely payment of stipends to trainees on June 15; secondly, to minimize, as far as possible, the potential disruption to the registration and placement of persons interested in the OJT Programme and thirdly, to ensure a Staff Orientation exercise for training in effective Service Delivery.
The OJT Programme was conceptualised in 2002, to provide citizens of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago between the ages 16-35 years, with an opportunity to gain practical experience in the workplace and assist in the development of professional and interpersonal skills necessary for success.
In February 2016, there was a Cabinet Decision to move the OJT Programme from the remit of the National Training Agency of the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development.
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For further information, please contact:
Corporate Communications Unit
Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development
Tel : (868) 625-8478 ext 1208, 1212, 1316