Opposition Senator Foster Cummings has accused the Government of closing youth-development programmes and removing training and employment pathways for young people.
Speaking at a People’s National Movement media conference, the former Minister of Youth Development and National Service said programmes in agriculture, heavy-equipment operation, air-conditioning work, vehicle mechanics, social-media marketing and music production had been discontinued.
Cummings also cited the Civilian Conservation Corps, mentorship initiatives and programmes offering training for industrial work, lifting equipment and drilling operations.
He said the previous administration had targeted young people who were not in employment, education or training, commonly described as the NEET group, with the aim of helping them enter employment or self-employment.
Cummings particularly defended a residential programme delivered with the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force for young men from at-risk communities who had experienced difficulties at school or within their communities.
Responding to criticism of a reported 35 per cent success rate, he argued that each successful participant represented a young person who could move towards a productive life rather than become vulnerable to gang recruitment.
Cummings accused the current Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, Phillip Watts, of failing to explain what would replace the programmes. The closures, programme outcomes and their effects were described from Cummings’s perspective; the source recording did not include a response from the Government or the ministry.