More than 20 women in Clarendon are to participate in a training programme geared at creating job opportunities for them.

Project GYAL – Guiding Young Ambitious Ladies – will be targeting women between the ages of 16 and 49 who did not finish high school and who are unemployed.

Coordinator for the project, Joan Andrea Hutchinson, told The Gleaner that 25 women would be trained in Clarendon and a similar number in St Thomas.

Giving details on Project GYAL, Hutchinson said that the mandate was to train and upskill women between 16 and 49 who have been exposed to gender-based violence, or intimate partner violence, or who are deemed at risk because of low basic education levels and minimal skills, factors that often make them financially dependent on a partner.

The first phase of the exercise ended recently in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine where 50 women benefited.