HAVING had their first exposure to the working world, compliments of the work study programme of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), some 46 scouts were encouraged to allow all that they had learnt to stick with them as they go out into the real world of work.

This advice was given them by senior police officer Maxine Graham at the Inspectors and Sergeants Mess at Eve Leary, Kingston, Georgetown on August 31, when she spoke to the scouts at conclusion of their attachment recently.

Describing their work study stint as a vibrant month-long activity that exposed young people to a very mature and real side of life at a very early age, Officer Graham told the scouts the GPF hoped that the knowledge they had gained would bring change to their lives and assist them in seeing things from a more mature point of view.

She expressed hope that the scouts would long treasure the experience of their sojourn at the GPF, and said the experience could very likely be the catalyst for their return to join the Guyana Police Force and serve their nation.

Stay on the right side of the law, she warned, describing the police side as the side the scouts should always really want to be on.

Speaking at the certification process at the end of the work study attachment, Coordinator of the Scouts, Senior Police Superintendent Lyndon Alves, said the GPF decision to have the young people on work study was a significant initiative geared at allowing for their development and assisting them to become well-rounded individuals.

He said the police involvement in scouting activities and the lives of scouts is to develop a better partnership with the individuals and the communities they represent.

Partnerships, he said, are also consistent with the broader picture of the GPF and its modernization exercise, which is about building better foundations.

The Scouts represented adventurous young people drawn from Police Headquarters and Agricola on the East Bank of Demerara, who displayed willingness to serve for the one-month period and were sent to various locations and departments of the Guyana Police Force, including Communications and Criminal Investigations, traffic, and the administrative office.

The Scouts Association has served the Guyana Police Force at several levels and departments, making the GPF proud, Alves disclosed. This initiative must be credited to former Police Commissioner Henry Greene, who resuscitated the relationship between the Scouts and the Guyana Police Force.

Former Police Commissioner Greene has been described as a man with a love for scouting. When the body was resuscitated in 2008, there was one scout at Eve Leary, and as the love for scouting grew over the years, three Scout groups were created in B Division, one in Linden and one in Agricola, with a total membership of six hundred.

The scouts were given cash incentives and certificates for participating in the exercises.