Supporting and encouraging youth participation and engagement in agriculture is a consistent theme in the country strategy of the IICA Delegation in Saint Lucia.
IICA Representative in the ECS
In support of creating real impact among the youth stakeholdership, the Delegation begun in 2015 to host secondary school interns as a strategy for highlighting career options in agriculture, providing interested youth with meaningful work experience and capacity building, as well as showing the more exciting aspects of owning and managing an agribusiness.
This year, the IICA Delegation had the pleasure of having Mr. Darnley Francis and Ms. Petal Jn. Charles of the Leon Hess Secondary School for two and a half weeks from July 4th – 22nd 2016 . During that time the interns received practical experience in the use of Microsoft Office Suite for preparing a technical report, data collation and analysis in Excel, and the fundamentals of making a public presentation. In addition to practical skills, the interns had opportunities to learn more about careers in agriculture from staff and partners. The interns also had the opportunity to contribute to the engagement of a rural stakeholder group for an on-going enterprise development initiative for hand-made artisan soaps.
The interns also had a special assignment to create a short video on the SPS workshop “Regional HACCP Training and Technical Assistance to Private Sector Companies” held July 11 – 12th 2016. This exercise required them to conduct interviews with participants and trainers, followed by editing and post-production graphics. When presented to staff at the Delegation, their work was received with high commendations.
The Interns, in their thanks to staff of IICA, highlighted how valuable the experience was to them in broadening their understanding of the agriculture sector, developing professional skills and instilling a deep interest in agriculture as a viable career path. We wish both Darnley and Petal success!
For more information contact: Brent Theophile (brent.theophile@iica.int) or Deborah Biscombe (deborah.biscombe@iica.int)
See the Interns’ video assignment here: https://we.tl/PPU8bcD5gM
