Youth receive training for business venture
We hear a lot these days about encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in Belizean young people and several programmes have been established to provide loans for enterprising youths. But between receiving their investment funds and retiring as millionaires lies an invariably difficult journey. Today I joined a group of budding business people as they received training to help them with their first steps.
Sylvia Cattouse, Workshop Facilitator
“As your colleague over there says, you need to find out what the people want.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
And that’s just want these young Belizean entrepreneurs are trying to figure out. All of them hope to one day open their own business and a few are well on their way.
Dawn Streete, Entrepreneur
“It has worked for me. It didn’t pay the rent so to speak, but it put food on the table.”
Career courier Dawn Streete plans to turn her experience into cash.
Dawn Streete
“Just for the regular everyday housewife, you know you are cooking and you have that bill to pay, but you can’t leave the pot on the stove but you can’t go out neither because there are other siblings at home. You could just call me and I’ll have somebody scoot over, pick that bill up for you, drop it off, pick it up. So it saves you time and you get it done.”
Paulette Ottley got a little more technical.
Paulette Ottley, Entrepreneur
“I live at eight and half mile Western Highway, that’s Sunset Park, Capital Life. I wanted to establish in my community area that is trying to develop, a grocery shop and I did a survey from house to house with several people with a price list about what they would want me to have in my grocery shop.”
According to Coordinator of Y.F.F.’s Enterprise Unit, Sandra Bradshaw, these specially designed training programs help to ensure that the participants get into viable ventures.
Sandra Bradshaw, Coordinator, Enterprise Unit, Y.F.F.
“We realize that a lot of the businesses, there are a lot of problems there because people weren’t trained maybe in basic accounting skills, maybe in marketing and promoting their businesses. And so we have sought to remedy that problem by providing training. I want to mention also that we work closely with U.B. We have a special arrangement with the university where the lecturers there volunteer their time to come and train and to also help to facilitate the whole process of accessing loans through Small Farmers, preparing these young people so they can access the loan and get them started in their businesses.”
If approved for a small grant, successful applicants receive a maximum of seven thousand dollars. If you are interested in participating in the programme, please contact Sandra Bradshaw at the Youth for the Future office at the foot of the Bel-China Bridge.
