Barbados is losing many of its young people because of their difficulty in transitioning from school to the workplace, says president of the Barbados Youth Development Council Cherisse Francis.
At yesterday’s International Youth Day service with the theme Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward at the Church of the Resurrection in Green Hill, St Michael, Francis said: “Although Barbadian young people are not migrating due to religious persecution or as refugees seeking political asylum, migration is a real factor amongst our young people and as the majority of our island’s youth continue educational pursuits to the tertiary level and beyond, many of them never return home again or return only in their older years.”
She added that this must be analyzed in order to ensure the island did not suffer “irreparable brain drain”.
“While I do applaud the University of the West Indies and our governments past and present for increasing the areas of study available here and putting measures in place to attempt to encourage our youth to return home, more needs to be done,” said the youth president, adding that young people were faced with a double-edged sword. (RL)
