Ryan Ba­choo

The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices has said the Adult Ed­u­ca­tion Pro­gramme (AEP), is not op­er­a­tional at this time and says it is go­ing through a "trans­for­ma­tion process". It comes as a brochure about the pro­gramme is be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed across var­i­ous me­dia en­cour­ag­ing ap­pli­cants to sign up.

A state­ment from the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, read, "In this re­gard, the Min­istry in­forms that con­sis­tent with its on­go­ing trans­for­ma­tion process, aimed at im­prov­ing its so­cial ser­vices de­liv­ery, to be more re­spon­sive and mul­ti­fac­eted; the Adult Ed­u­ca­tion Pro­gramme is be­ing re-pur­posed to re­spond to the needs of the many vul­ner­a­ble clients and fam­i­lies in our so­ci­ety."

It went fur­ther in stat­ing, "To this end, the new, fit-for-pur­pose AEP will, among oth­er things, en­hance our clients’ abil­i­ty to tran­si­tion from wel­fare to self-suf­fi­cien­cy, fo­cus­ing on ar­eas such as mi­cro-en­ter­prise, coach­ing and men­tor­ing, al­low­ing them to lead more sus­tain­able lives."