Even as government officials devise strategies to deal with this country’s economic downturn, the American Chamber of Commerce continues to invest in the nation’s future dreamers.
Through its National Youth Productivity Forum (NYPF), the lobby group aims to foster a new culture where national undertakings are tackled more efficiently, says president of the American Chamber of Commerce of T&T Ravi Suryadevara, who is calling on citizens to embrace the downturn.
“Use the opportunity to become more efficient, more productive and ready to take advantage when the market rebounds. As the research clearly shows, organisations need both diversity and inclusion to be successful and T&T needs successful organisation in the quest to build a productive, creative and knowledge-based workforce. While we at AmChamTT continue to do our part, we continue to call on all stakeholders to assist in creating avenues for youth engagement and inclusion,” he said.
The Chamber head was speaking at the organisation’s seventh Annual National Youth Productivity Forum, held at the O’Meara Campus of the University of T&T, with the theme: Diversity…Inclusion…Towards A More Productive T&T.
Guardian Media Limited was a sponsor of the event along with UTT, First Citizens, Massy Technologies InfoCom, EOG Resources, Beacon Insurance, EZone, Point Lisas Nitrogen and Unesco.
Suryadevara applauded AmCham’s corporate partners for agreeing to take in 18 of the participating students as interns during the August vacation as “diversity ambassadors,” with the aim of assisting students in the real-life application of theories learnt.
He praised the vision of officials at the Education Ministry and the Division of Education and Youth Affairs for allowing students to reimagine the way they envisage life beyond the classroom to take part in the project, which won international acclaim among 23 other AmChams in the western hemisphere the first year it was introduced.
According to the Chamber official, NYPF was deemed to be both innovative and creative.
“Yet, despite these successes, the Forum is still plagued by misconceptions—misconceptions that programmes like this hinder student’s performance in schools. The truth is programmes like this are complementary to the school curriculum. For T&T to become the ‘Caribbean’s Economic Tiger’, a laudable goal that I believe we can achieve, we must have an education system that develops creativity, entrepreneurship, problem-solving and critical thinking—all tenants of the NYPF.
“Through the various components of the NYPF, students learn a range of skills—not simply for use during the competition, or even to be applied to every subject at school, but they learn life skills, skills that they need at every point in their lives.”