Klao Bell, Staff Reporter
THE first leg of a Government-sponsored programme intended to help wean women off food stamps has ended with disappointment.
While 17 women were assured of work experience and jobs in hotels, at the end of the programme - two months after - they have secured neither.
Melvah Blake, executive director of the Workforce Development Consortium, the agency that co-ordinated the programme, which is based in St. Thomas, blamed the hotels for not following through on promises to employ the women at the end of the 12-week training course in home management.
"The real thing that delayed them was that we were hoping to place them at the bigger hotels in Kingston and Port Antonio ... when we spoke to some of the hotels first they were excited, but now they are saying no they can't help," Ms. Blake said.
She said that the Bonnie View Plantation Hotel in Port Antonio, Portland, and the Sutton Place Hotel in St. Andrew reneged on their promise. At least one of those two hotels admitted it had not held up its end of the deal.
"Yes I had promised to help but right now I just can't do it," said Daphney Atkins, assistant manager of the Bonnie View Plantation Hotel. "They live so far, that is the problem, and they're so big. They don't send me any slim person."
Ms. Atkins listed a number of reasons for not accepting the women, including their physical build. She said, however, that one of the two women who she saw was fairly well trained. But she also admitted that the hotel needs workers.
"I need somebody for the kitchen and for the front desk. One of the girls came and she wasn't bad but she has a little boy and he was hard to stay over," Ms. Atkins said.
The Sunday Gleaner was unable to reach the managing director of Sutton Place Hotel for comment last week.
St. Thomas was the first of three programmes where 100 mothers on food stamps would be trained to work in the service industry. The other two programmes are slated for St. Catherine and St. Mary. The St. Catherine programme is yet to start.
Some $1 million was allocated by the Ministry of Labour and Welfare toward the project which Labour Minister Donald Buchanan had described as "a part of our poverty alleviation plan."
In a previous interview Ms. Blake had told The Sunday Gleaner that the women would be employed both in Jamaica and overseas.
"Though the guarantee is not on paper, the guarantee is that at the end of the programme they are employable and will be employed because the hospitality industry is vibrant," she said. "...To the extent that Americans need certified workers in their hotels, they are pretty much guaranteed a job because the demand is there."
But none of the 17 women are certified as their training is incomplete without work experience. Additionally, only one woman was accepted to go abroad on the Ministry of Labour's work programme. The others were told that they were not qualified.
"When we went to the Ministry for an interview the programme manager told us that we weren't qualified. Only one girl got through," said Nickeisha Skeen, 23-year-old mother who has three years working experience as a cook.
Ms. Skeen also said that the women were not properly advised on what to take to the interview. They only carried passports and were told that they needed recommendations also, she said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Skeen said she is the only one of the 17 who is currently employed.
"Everybody is at home stunned," she said. "We don't hear anything. We are so disappointed. When we (see) each other we always asking if we hear anything and they say they don't hear anything. One of them is even now pregnant."
