Too many young men on the streets with nothing to do- Carl Dawson
Mr Dawson was speaking to Virgin Islands News Online following the armed robbery committed on his business place on March 30, 2017.
According to the former Permanent Secretary, he was not at the superette at the time but when he got there he was told that a masked man “held up the girls with a gun and took whatever cash was there and left.”
Mr Dawson further related that it was not the first time his business place was robbed. “It was robbed numerous times, at least five or six times already. I was held up personally about two or three times while in the shop.”
Can’t turn over security of territory to police
Mr Dawson said; however, that his concern is that the leadership of the country feels they could turn the security of the country to the police. “You can’t do that. The security of the country belongs to all of us.”
Explaining his point, Mr Dawson said there are too many young people out of school on the streets walking about without anything to do and that this needed to be urgently addressed.
The businessman said he is aware there is a technical school for young people; however, there is need for more expertise there. “You cannot train tradesmen in a technical school without people who do not know enough of the trades.”
Reflecting, Mr Dawson said when he was working for Government he had trained more than twenty young men “who were getting out of hand.”
“They sending the guys to work with the tradesmen but there is a certain amount of theory that has to go into the training.”
Mr Dawson cautioned, however, that he was to check out the situation at the Virgin Islands School of technical Studies (VISTS) to see if anything has changed.
“I did so before and some of the teachers were concerned that not enough interest was being put into the institution. They didn’t have adequate materials to work with…so it is just something to keep the guys occupied. I understand that they now putting them out to various businesses but I don’t know how that is working out.
“But basically there are too many young boys in particular out on the streets without anything to do,” Mr Dawson lamented.
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38 Responses to “Too many young men on the streets with nothing to do- Carl Dawson”
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like hard work, stop kidding your self, the want money easy and plenty of it.
Let's not act like who you for and last name doesn't play a role too.
Wize Up, you are correct. When I graduated from high school, the head of a government department told me about a vacancy in her department and asked if I was interested. I told her yes and she saw to it that I got the proper training and I worked until I resigned and went into the private sector. There were two HR officers in Government from East End and they did the same with young people graduating from high school, but this type of courtesy is no longer extended. Government is importing unskilled labour and every business person is allowed to do the same. I saw an Asian in the news the other day holding up a sign offering "day trips to the Baths". Could you beat that. He was granted a work permit because that is a special skill no one in the BVI can do (:-). The BVI allow businesses to import people to do even the menial tasks because they could pay them less than the minimum wage and live like sardines in a tin. Not only is the BVI failing its youths, by inviting people to live in poverty, but we are also putting a strain on the infrastructure. Labour and Immigration must see what is happening and put a stop to it. They blame the Ministers who fail to let people they put in managerial positions to do their jobs, but if enough of us stand up there is not a damn thing the ministers could do because we are responsible for them being ministers. (Can the Minister of Labour fire everyone in the departments of labour and immigration?) It is time BVI stop issuing work permits for people to sit and stand on corners and do work which requires no skill.
I observed something a few weeks ago. I saw two young men walking along the side walk which is used as a bus stop across from the round-about, one was dressed in a torn up blue jean and a black vest and the other was wearing a similar jean with a white tee. The following two mornings after I saw the same two guys crossing the street accross from Flow, and they were dressed in the same gears. That told me that they were new to the BVI and perhaps illegal immigrants too. I knew them by their clothes, so I cannot recognise them anymore, but they are probably now working while our youths cannot get jobs. Somebody has got to look into doing something.
Regardless it is a FACT that it is easier for expats to get jobs in BVI than locals which is why the locals leave and find work elsewhere. Badmindedness is all
The work permit situation is also an issue; our kids don't have training- one company brought in down island taxi drivers a couple of years ago...TAXI DRIVERS??? how does that happen? Why don't we have a taxi driver/customer relations training program for our kids? A truckdriver program? Apprentice programmes for heavy machinery operators? Apprentice programmes for tour boats? Apprentice programmes for auto and appliance repair? We can involve existing businesses by giving them tax breaks.
Our community is growing rapidly and we are not engaged in our own future. We need to change our thinking and that starts at home, in the community at large and in our schools. We must think of our future.