THE Youth Desk at the CARICOM Secretariat is close to finalising a manual that will be used to equip young people throughout the Region with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to successfully run  businesses. Much of the content and activities in the manual, dubbed ‘Creativity for Employment and Business Opportunities (CEBO)’ were fine-tuned during a February 8 to 11 workshop that was held at the Ocean Terrace Inn in St. Kitts. Participants included Marcia Brandon of the Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT); John Roach of the Dominica Youth Business Trust; Senior Youth Officer in St. Kitts,  Pierre Liburd; CARICOM Youth Ambassadors Dwayne Gutzmer and Kerry Chen of Jamaica; Ian Richards of SKNIS; and CARICOM’s Deputy Programme Manager for Education, Patricia McPherson.
CARICOM’s Deputy Programme Manager for Youth, Dr. Heather Johnson, who chaired the meeting, described the sessions as “productive” and noted her pleasure with the contributions from  participants.
CEBO is the CARICOM Secretariat’s response to the issues raised in the report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (CCYD) which highlighted that the Region has the highest rate of unemployment for persons under the age of 30.
The instructional document was first developed in October 2011, when members of the public and private sectors and civil society agencies throughout the Region convened at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort. Some of the information included in CEBO has been adopted from the BYBT manual.
The final draft of the document is due in the coming weeks and officials plan to test the CEBO manual in St. Kitts and Nevis.