TT scores low in employment on youth development index

This year’s youth development index (YDI) which is the second of its kind and released by the Commonwealth Secretariat on October 21, ranks TT at 179 out of 183 countries on the employment and opportunity domain ahead only of Tanzania, Yemen, Niger and Iraq.

The first YDI was released in 2013.

Rankings were in five domains - education, health and well being, employment and opportunity, civic participation and political participation.

In the overall YDI ranking, TT has been ranked at 84 out of 183 countries. At a press conference at the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus to address the issues of the YDI, Nikoli Edwards, Vice Chairperson (Policy, Advocacy and Projects) of the Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) noted that according to the YDI, the largest period of youth development in TT was between 2010 and 2015.

“We are now in 2016 moving forward and we have seen a stagnation in many areas when it comes to youth development,” Edwards said.

Many youth groups, he noted, no longer receive the subventions they got in the past due to the economic situation.

Despite these cutbacks, he said, society need to invest heavily in young people as they would be the ones to take over the reins of power, and lead corporations and other entities into the future.

He noted that since he became a vice chairperson of the CYC in November 2015, he met with Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Darryl Smith and President Anthony Carmona to highlight a number of concerns. “Sad to report, since those conversations,” he said, “I have not seen any marked improvement or willingness to assist young people in the manner on which we deserve to be assisted,” he said.

Edwards is due to meet with Smith in the coming days and will present him with ten recommendations in an effort to improve the situation among young people. The recommendations include appointment of youth ambassadors to Commonwealth, United Nations and Caricom, reservation of a percentage of jobs and opportunities for youths within the public and private sectors, and the re-establishment of the National Youth Council of TT. The recommendations also include a national youth parliament meeting monthly.