The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY 200 young people on Grand Bahama are participating in the government’s Summer Youth Employment Programme this year.

Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe, parliamentary secretary of information and communications in the Office of the Prime Minister, and MP for West Grand Bahama and Bimini, addressed the participants during the launch of the programme yesterday at the Foster B Pestaina Auditorium, in Freeport.

There are 175 college and high school students enrolled in the programme, which places participants at local companies and government agencies to provide them with on-the-job training and experience over the long summer break.

During her address, Mrs Parker-Edgecombe told students to make a lasting impression on their employers. “A lot of you are going to have to prove yourself on the job; don’t take it for granted. Your employers will look at you, and some may want to keep you for the entire time or every summer,” she said. “Don’t slack off and talk to friends all day, and be on WhatsApp and say you don’t have anything to do.”

While the job placement might not be exactly in their area of interest, the MP told them to make the most of the experience. She said that before she was hired at ZNS, she worked at Shell, and at a lime farm in East Grand Bahama to earn money for college.

Mrs Parker-Edgecombe said that working at the farm was “one of the best experiences of her life”.

“I couldn’t find a job in the office arena. I had an aunt who worked on the farm and I said to her, ‘I just want to work, I don’t care what it is’...to gain finances to assist with my college,” she recalled.

She would have to get up at 6am for three weeks and get in the back of a truck to head to the farm in East End to pick limes. “That was one of the best experiences of my life, actually. It was one of my very first jobs,” she said.

She told students to make the most of where they are being placed and gain as much experience as they can. “Your employers are going to be looking at you to see what it is that you have to offer,” said Mrs Parker-Edgecombe.

She also noted that while getting an education is important and having a degree, it is not enough sometimes. “Just getting an education nowadays is not going to be enough, you have to know how to utilise what you learned and apply it your work. You have persons with degrees who are sometimes are at home doing nothing...because sometimes there aren’t opportunities,” she explained.