Give youth ‘chance to be creative’

Gercine Carter (BHTA's Colin Jordan complimenting student Donella Blackman, while Banks Holdings' Colin Frost and Sophia Cambridge look on.)

Sat, February 11, 2012 - 12:00 AM

BARBADOS’ BUSINESSES are being encouraged to provide more opportunities for young people to utilize their skill and creativity.

Making the call at the launch of the 2012 Banks Holdings Limited (BHL) Calendar on Thursday, president of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association Colin Jordan urged businesses to develop avenues through which young talent could be developed, creativity unleashed and “issues confronting the economy could be addressed”.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Banks Holdings Limited has challenged the Barbados Community College Hospitality Institute (BCCHI) students to experiment and come up with new drinks for a printed calendar.

There was satisfaction all around Pom Marine Hotel on Thursday as students and BHL officials viewed the completed product. Jordan suggested the results had served to lift the students’ self-esteem.

Twelve original cocktails concocted by 12 BCCHI students appear in the calendar with cocktails made from Barbadian ingredients and Jordan saw in them the potential for development of new items of Barbadian food and drink for the visitor market.

“A collaboration like the one we have cause to celebrate today assists future bartenders and mixologists in developing beverages that will be attractive, tasty and that will represent the exposure to local values our visitors desire,” Jordan stated.

The BHTA president said a significant portion of Barbados’ food import bill was beverages and wines, while observing there was local content in “a significant portion” of the beverages served in food and beverage establishments across the island. He therefore thought the BHL/BCCHI collaboration had some economic potential.

Supporting Jordan’s suggestion for giving exposure to young talent, BHL’s group public relations manager Sophia Cambridge said: “We have to continue to devise creative ways to promote our young talent, to encourage our young people to develop their skills and continue to use their creative imagination.” (GC)