The Tribune

BAIN and Grants Town MP Travis Robinson launched a partnership yesterday with Cyber Tech Career College to provide 200 scholarships to constituency residents.

He also announced the launch of the Bains and Grants Town Centre for Academic Development and Enrichment which will be facilitated by Cyber Tech Career College.

Mr Robinson, the youngest MP elected to Parliament, said a 2010 census revealed less than one per cent of Bains and Grants Town residents have three years or more of a college education while more than 50 per cent of residents are unemployed.

"The assessments of the great needs and challenges of this community continues to be my top priority," Mr Robinson said. "I wish to draw attention to a major area that has long been a challenge and an impediment for many of our people. Education.

"A census report conducted in 2010 for Bains and Grants Town notes the following: 0.8 per cent of residents have three or more years of college education.

"Five per cent have least than an associate's degree, and 11 per cent only have a kindergarten or elementary education, 23.5 per cent attended school up to the ninth grade, and 55.6 per cent of the total community populous went beyond the ninth grade.

"Today, there are approximately 15,000 constituents in Bains and Grants Town of which over 54 per cent are unemployed, the majority of those who are unemployed have high school education above the ninth grade. Two thirds have no training or a specific trade and about four per cent are professionals."

He said through the partnership, 200 hundred scholarships will be available for residents of the Bains and Grants Town constituency at Cyber Tech. The age of eligibility is from age 16-49.

Scholarship applications are available at Mr Robinson's constituency office. Successful applicants will matriculate through a ten week certificate course in any one of the following courses: entrepreneurship and small business development; computer studies; e-commerce and internet marketing; and customer service.

Classes are set to begin April 23.