MEET TARISSA ETIENNE-GRENADE
Tarrisa Ettienne-Grenade is the Project Coordinator at Faith Organisation for People’s Development (FOPD) with responsibility for project development, grant mobilisation, trainee recruitment, stakeholder engagement and coordination of project implementation. Prior to her full-time engagement at FOPD, Mrs. Grenade worked at the Ministry of Education and volunteered her spare time to community development at FOPD. When asked why she chose to volunteer Mrs. Grenade said, “As a former business teacher for over 12 years, I was aware of skills training occurring locally but had no prior experience or involvement, I just wanted to offer my service to help people to become more self-sufficient”.
THE SkYE-FOPD PROGRAMME
Tarissa with students at FOPD. Photo Credits: Tarissa Grenade
FOPD is a community-based organization in the village of Telescope, St. Andrew parish. Its partnership with SkYE began when another SkYE Grantee recognized the impact of the organization in the community and suggested that FOPD apply for the programme. Although FOPD had some experience in skills development and offered training in computer literacy and soft furnishings, it was not at a certificate level and they had very little knowledge of CVQ/TVET. Nevertheless, they pursued the opportunity as they understood the need to further develop the youths in the area – many community members were requesting additional training in areas such as facilities maintenance, housekeeping and sewing. Through the programme, FOPD is training 80 young people in the areas of Food Preparation, Pastry Chef, Fashion Design, and Facilities Maintenance.
REFLECTIONS OF THE JOURNEY
While reflecting on her journey through the SkYE programme, Mrs. Grenade stated that the experience taught her many significant life lessons, “As much as we try to plan, change will happen, and one should be prepared to embrace it with grit and keep moving forward. The onset of COVID forced us to adapt swiftly. Everyone (trainees, trainers, staff, families) was experiencing this change simultaneously but in different ways and, no one was certain how training would progress. I learned to be patient, innovative, open-minded and hopeful. I also learned various communicative styles by observing classroom and online training, especially when teaching trainees with disabilities”.
Mrs. Grenade has also developed professionally, “I have strengthened my planning and organization skills, as well as stakeholder engagement and people management skills. Moreover, as a result of my exposure to CVQ training through the SKYE Project, I now have a dynamic job opportunity as the Project Coordinator for a new initiative with the Ministry of Education “Lifelong Learning Programme” which focuses on skills training at the community level. My experience and strengthened skills gave my job supervisor confidence in my abilities to execute this national programme”.
Tarissa believes the SkYE programme offers hope to vulnerable youths by providing them with tools to empower themselves and support their families. She has seen the transformation of the trainees and therefore is highly grateful to SkYE for the programme.
FACTS
Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE) is a four-year, UKaid funded programme to provide certified skills training for 6,000 disadvantaged young people, including those challenged by disability, in four Eastern Caribbean countries: Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines. The Programme will develop a more productive and inclusive workforce in sectors with good economic growth potential.
SkYE is supporting national training authorities and training providers to make systemic improvements to the development, delivery and quality assurance of technical, vocational education and training (TVET) in the four focus islands through targeted capacity building.
