When Michael and Jackie Myles started Inspire Cayman Training Centre four years ago, they had a dream of upskilling Caymanians who otherwise may not have had the chance in life to succeed.
Now, after providing training for 500 Caymanians, Inspire owner and director Michael Myles said the Grand Harbour-based facility wants more young people to make use of the opportunities to get job-ready.
“It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about courage, and courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. Our honourees have shown tremendous amounts of courage, perseverance, and excellence. At Inspire we inspire citizenship, hopefulness, persistence, hard work, commitment, accountability, dedication,” Myles said Saturday night at the Inspire Cayman Training achievement ceremony held at the Marriott.
Premier Wayne Panton, who also spoke at the event, lauded the efforts of the training centre to retool tourism workers and upskill young Caymanians.
Caymanian opportunities
As he pledged the government’s support, Panton urged Caymanians, working or not, to make use of the 4,000 professional development training programmes across diversified industries available at the training centre.
“We have 34,000-plus work permits. Our problem is not generating jobs for our people. Our challenge is to make sure that are people who need to earn more money, who need to upskill themselves, who need to better their lives for their families and themselves, take advantage of programmes like this to be able to do that, and it’s phenomenal that we have this available,” he said.
He called on Caymanians to invest their free time in themselves and watch the training programmes rather than Netflix.
After launching in 2019, the Inspire Cayman team was forced to pivot when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and, though it posed a challenge, the change in plans also helped to fuel online courses.
“Logic supported us in becoming connected to the world. The organisation sponsored free internet service, which [has] allowed us to connect our 300 students to accredited courses,” Myles said, as he honoured both Logic and CUC as early supporters of the training facility.
At Saturday’s ceremony, which was themed ‘Inspiring Hope’, recent graduates of the International Yacht Training and Emergency First Response certification – scholarships for which were sponsored by the Tourism Ministry – were honoured.
Myles shared that the theme ‘Inspiring Hope’ was chosen by him and his team “because we work with so many young people who are losing hope as they feel left out of the Cayman dream”.
“Many of our young people are surviving and not thriving. Our young people feel we have left them behind. We must change this,” he said.
Speaker of the House Katherine Ebanks-Wilks presented the William Austin Ebanks award, which was named in her father’s honour, to graduate Dante Dell’Oglio, who completed the International Yacht Training and EFR certification.
It was an emotional moment for her and her mother, Mary Ebanks, as they presented the award they sponsored. Ebanks-Wilks said her father, a well-known seafarer, would have been proud of the achievement.
Second chances
Jackie Myles, in her opening remarks, said while there are successes coming out of the training, there is still more work to be done.
“We have to secure long-term access to funding for Caymanians that want to pursue meaningful employment and trades. We have to share our stories so that careers in trades aren’t seen as what you do if you can’t go to college.They are careers that make up a huge proportion of job opportunities in these islands and are an excellent choice for a career path,” she said.
Inspire alumni like Alliah Akers, Allison Hidalgo and Kameron D’Hue shared their emotional stories of triumph after being broken down by circumstances and then finding their way to success.
Hidalgo said that she did not think she was meant for anything great, but Inspire Cayman helped her move from a path of no opportunities to a position where she is spoilt for choice when it comes to employment.
Jamal Paddyfoote said that he did not know where he was heading until he signed up for the International Yacht Training and Emergency First Response certification. Now he has been put on a path to achieve his dreams through mentorship opportunities at the training centre.
Shaping future leaders
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, who attended the ceremony, congratulated the 19 graduates who were recipients of the Water Sports Scholarship provided by the Ministry and Department of Tourism in 2022.
“While we have been working hard to drive visitation to our islands, we were also motivating Caymanians to seek employment in tourism and hospitality, so that they could contribute to, and benefit from, the industry’s success,” said Bryan.
The programme offered 12 full-time scholarships geared toward unemployed or under-employed Caymanians, and 12 part-time scholarships for people already employed in the industry.
Bryan said having Caymanians trained in boat operation and emergency first response will help to reduce water-related injuries in the industry.
“By offering training in this area, we will encourage more Caymanians to enter into the market, taking up positions such as lifeguards, boat operators and in other EFR-related jobs,” he added.
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