Government may expand NiCE work

Commerce Minister Joey Hew says government is considering expanding its National Community Enhancement (NiCE) project from a twice-yearly initiative to a more long-term approach.

The latest winter/spring NiCE project attracted 742 people, when it ran from 7-18 Dec. and 11-22 Jan. This was the third consecutive year the Ministry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure had run the programme for unemployed and underemployed Caymanians and spouses of Caymanians.

“Over the years, we have developed the project into a multi-agency programme, including WORC and others, that play a pivotal role in the employment and training of our people,” Hew said in a press release.

“I think we are at a place where we can extend the programme,” he said. “We can look to start partnering with other agencies and perhaps extend the project over a longer period of time and use as a training programme, a second chance programme, a bit of a rehabilitation or on the work training programme for some of the folks who are fully able and capable of working but for whatever reason unable to find full-time employment at this time.”

He added, “We were pleased to offer gainful temporary employment in the run up to Christmas and in the new year to retirees who still felt able to put in a few weeks as well as the under employed and those who are unable to work for varying reasons.”

When registration for the winter programme was carried out in November, it was done within the individual districts, in keeping with the national COVID-19 regulations, which limited gatherings to no more than 500 people.

As a result, smaller work groups than usual were deployed to work with supervisors from WORC, the Department of Environment, Public Works Department, National Roads Authority. Groups were also assigned to the Mosquito Research and Control Unit and the Agricultural Grounds, Project Manager Lois Kellyman said in the release.

Over the two-week period, work crews cleared scrub, took part in roadside remediation work and cleared beach accesses, and also tackled general maintenance work at the Agricultural Grounds and refurbishment of the truck scale at the George Town landfill.

NiCE Programme Winter 2020/Spring 2021 Analysis