The Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme (YTEPP) was conceived in 1988 as a short term intervention programme originally funded by the World Bank and the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It was aimed at addressing the issues and challenges created by the growing problem of unemployment and underemployment faced by the nation’s youth between the ages of 15 and 25 years. YTEPP was established as a Limited Liability Company in 1990, with Corporation Sole, the Minister of Finance, as the only shareholder. In 2011, the span of YTEPP Limited was increased through the repositioning of the Retraining Programme to YTEPP Limited, from the then Ministry of Tertiary Education and Skills Training.
The Retraining programme’s primary objective is the re-tooling and re-skilling of unemployed, retrenched or displaced citizens between the ages of 25 and 60, to enhance their opportunity to access sustainable employment and self-employment. The Rehabilitating Inmates through Training and Retraining (RITTR) Programme, an arm of the Retraining Department, serves as an intervention, geared towards providing training to the incarcerated between the ages of 18 and 50 in four (4) Prison institutions in Trinidad and Tobago.
As such, YTEPP now targets a significant segment of marginalized or at-risk persons that fall into three (3) major groups, namely:
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At-risk/unemployed Youth between the ages of 15-35.
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Unemployed, underemployed, retrenched or displaced persons between the ages of 25-60.
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Convicted inmates between the ages of 18 and 50 who have between 6 and 18 months left of their sentence.
YTEPP Limited is governed by a Board of Directors; operations executed by an Executive Management; and is an agency of the Ministry of Education.
