A new wage-sharing policy for participants in the Skills Training and Empowerment Programme (STEP) is set to reshape one of the country’s largest social initiatives, as the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party government moves to tighten oversight and shift more responsibility to private employers.
Speaking in the National Assembly on February 12, Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Hanley outlined reforms aimed at restoring the programme to its original purpose while improving long-term sustainability.
Launched in 2012 as the People Empowerment Programme (PEP), STEP was conceived as a short-term skills training initiative designed to give participants work experience before transitioning into full employment or entrepreneurship. Over time, however, some enrollees have remained assigned to the same businesses for a decade or more a development the government says has strained public finances and blurred the programme’s training focus.
Under the new policy, private sector businesses that continue to benefit from STEP workers will now be required to assume at least 50 percent of the wages paid to those employees. In some cases, arrangements of 60-40 have been agreed, with employers covering 40 percent and government maintaining the larger share temporarily.
Dr. Hanley said consultations were held with business owners, many of whom acknowledged the need for reform. The government currently spends approximately $1.5 million per week on STEP wages, an expenditure officials say must be managed carefully to ensure the programme’s survival.
“All we are asking is for these businesses, after 10 or 11 years of having persons assigned to them, to partner with us so we can help more people in need,” Dr. Hanley told Parliament. He rejected suggestions that participants would be dismissed, assuring that no one would be “sent home,” though some workers may be reassigned within the public sector as adjustments are made.
The reforms come amid broader national debate about the structure and purpose of STEP. Opposition voices, including Natasha Grey-Brookes, political leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), have also called for significant restructuring of the programme.
Addressing a recent press conference, Grey-Brookes said STEP “must be a pathway, not a parking lot,” arguing that participants should not remain at entry-level positions for years without certification or advancement. She emphasized the need for stronger oversight of employer partnerships and structured training that leads to upward mobility and entrepreneurship.
Under PAM’s proposed reforms, the programme would focus more deliberately on skills certification, performance evaluation, and helping participants transition from employment into business ownership. “Our goal is to create a cycle of advancement, where today’s STEP participant becomes tomorrow’s employer,” she said.
While the governing party frames the wage-sharing requirement as a fairness measure and a necessary step toward sustainability, the opposition stresses accountability and measurable progression. Both sides agree on one core point: the programme must evolve beyond long-term subsidized employment.
With thousands of households connected directly or indirectly to STEP, the coming months will test whether the new cost-sharing model can balance fiscal responsibility with economic opportunity and whether it delivers the transformation successive administrations say the programme was always meant to achieve.