GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas – The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC) Youth Division held orientation for its 2025 Cohort in its signature Fresh Start Program at the Foster B. Pestaina Centre on February 14, 2025.
Some 40 unemployed participants, between ages 17 and 25, have been chosen to embark on a journey in skills training, job readiness, personal development and workplace internship.
This year’s cohort is enrolled in Carpentry and Electrical, Sales and Cashier, Hospitality and Computer IT.
The four-month program includes three months of skills training at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) and Bahamas Institute of Business and Technology (BIBT) and one month of internship related to their training.
Upon completion, the participants will walk away with the accompanying certification.
MYSC has also partnered with BIBT and Grand Lucayan Resort to offer hybrid training for the Hospitality group that will allow the enrollees to gain two hours of in-class training and a two-hour internship on the resort property each day.
The program, which totals just over $100,000, is free to participants who are also provided with the materials required and a stipend.
It is the ministry’s endeavor to ensure that the Fresh Start graduates receive gainful employment, particularly in the area they were trained.
MYSC Deputy Director of Sports Norris Bain congratulated the cohort and implored the participants to take full advantage of the opportunity being presented to them.
“Learn as much as you possibly can because when the day comes that an opportunity avails itself, you want to be able to step right into that opportunity because you would have taken advantage of this kind of privilege that is being granted to you. So don’t take it for granted,” he said.
Forty applicants making up the 2025 cohort of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture Fresh Start Program designed to provide training and certification for gainful employment showed up for orientation at the Foster B. Pestaina Centre on February 14, 2025.
(BIS Photos/Andrew Miller)
