Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has reaffirmed her commitment to job creation, as hundreds turned out for the Government’s National Recruitment Drive in Couva on Thursday, eager to register for job placements across various sectors.
Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said the initiative has received an overwhelming response so far.
“So for those of you who have not yet come here, there are other venues open across the country. But there’s online. And that online, Minister Smith is in charge of that part of it, and you told me online? About 90,000 persons. More than that.”
The Prime Minister reassured the population that the Government remains committed to providing sustainable employment opportunities.
“So while you all became very upset, some of you, with me, when I said there is no CEPEP and there’s no URP, there will be no ghosts. There will be real people, real jobs. These jobs are sustainable jobs. You could not go with a CEPEP job to the bank and get a proper mortgage to buy a house, or get a proper mortgage to buy a car, or get a proper mortgage to send your child to university somewhere. You couldn’t do it with CEPEP and URP. That was just hand-to-mouth feeding.”
She encouraged citizens to take advantage of the opportunity.
“I think this is a very good thing for our country. The majority of persons have come. They seem to be younger ones. They seem to be entry-level ones. So the young ones, graduates, young graduates out here, and it’s an opportunity that should not be wasted by anyone.”
Speaking with TTT News at the Recruitment Drive, Darren Samaroo described the process as seamless and unlike any other recruitment initiatives he experienced in the past.
“It was good, no kind of complaints so far, everything was spaced out, everything was enough information given, simple to apply, and well, everybody here so far, and so far when we come, everybody was getting treated at a reasonable pace. I went in like, let me say, one or two other recruitment drives before and those are very lengthy, you have to reach there from like 4 or 5 in the morning and it had one that we went in and we left there at like 1 or 2 o’clock and we still didn’t end up getting through.”
The National Recruitment Drive was launched on October 19th, with more than 20,000 positions available across various sectors.
At Thursday’s event, officials revealed that over 110,000 applications have already been submitted online.