The Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme (YTEPP) and British Petroleum of Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT) have embarked on a collaborative effort to train more young people to become entrepreneurs as a viable option to earning a living. This partnership has taken the form of the YTEPP-BPTT Entrepreneurial Development Training Programme which was launched at the Kapok Hotel on Monday 18th March, 2019. A cohort of seventy-five (75) trainees from five different communities were selected to receive entrepreneurship training in the Programme. These five communities are Port-of-Spain, Arima, Chaguanas, San Fernando and Tobago.
Fifteen (15) trainees from Port-of-Spain are the first to begin receive their tutoring, while the others will follow in the near future. Some areas of study in which the trainees will be taught in the Programme are Tourism, Hairdressing, Cosmetology, Construction, Film Production and Food Preparation and Catering.
The YTEPP-BPTT Entrepreneurial Development Training Programme trainees were selected based on applications and an interest shown by them to establish their own businesses. The training in the Programme was developed using YTEPP’s curriculum.
As part of their immersion into business, they would be required to develop a business plan and the best two in each of the communities would be provided with a grant of twenty thousand ($20,000) dollars to assist them with starting up their enterprises.
While delivering the Feature Address at the event, Dr. the Honourable Lovell Francis, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, appealed to the trainees to utilise the opportunity presented by being part of the Programme and not sell themselves short.
“Have a big dream. Take the training and make it yours add to it, modify, expand on it. Whatever ideas, whatever dreams you have, put it into use. Don’t be afraid to be your own CEO, be your own entrepreneur, to be you own business person and to work hard. We are at the point where we need more people like you because from your ideas, from your work, from whatever you produce or can potentially produce, this dream that we have called diversification could become a reality,” he said.