One of the young black males recently shot in an incident linked to gang warfare on the Island, had been asking for help to find a job for the last two years.

But Youth on the Move director Carlton Simmons said he was unable to help the young man because he lacked simple job skills such as punctuality and work force etiquette.

He hopes the recently released study on young black males could help organisations like his raise funds to meet the needs of disaffected males.

On Monday, Columbia Professor Ronald Mincy released 'On the Wall or on the Margins? A study of employment, earnings and educational attainment gaps between young black males and their same age peers' in which he stated: "Once on site in Bermuda, we learnt that more than 50 percent of black males leave the public high schools prior to completion."

The study also revealed that black Bermudian males have higher unemployment rates, lower earnings, and lower employment rates in high-paying industries than white Bermudian males.

"The young man that was shot, he has been coming to me for years saying 'get me a job, get me a job'. But I couldn't," said Mr. Simmons. "He didn't have the soft skills, he didn't know the simple things like showing up on time, not calling in sick the day after a public holiday, how to interact with people at work things that people say everyone should know, but they don't.

"We need to be able to develop a standard that we expect all young people to have in a job, whether they finished school or not, and we need to stick to it."

It wasn't news to Mr. Simmons that young black males were consistently underachieving in a variety of fields compared to their white and female peers, but he thinks that the scope of the problem is probably news to many.

"I think everyone knew there was a problem," he said. "But I think the statistics released in the report will help a lot of people realise what we are dealing with. And I think it will help organisations like ours raise money as business people will be able to see the facts and figures they need to make their decisions."

Youth on the Move is an organisation that aims to provide support for people between the ages of 18 and 38 in areas such as education and personal development.

While many organisations cater to the needs of teens, Mr. Simmons said his appears to be the only one to pick up people who have fallen between the gap — or have been sitting on a wall — and help get them back on track.

A 'Taking Control' programme helps young people obtain the basic tools to make them more responsible and take better control of their lives. It sees them through such things as driver's licence and passport applications and setting up bank accounts. Simple stuff, some may say, but Mr. Simmons said often it's these things that can prevent people from getting jobs. The group also reviews people's resumes and helps improve their interview skills, and has recently started an administration programme which teaches basic computer skills.

"We've been dealing with these young people for a long time now, the report didn't provide us with anything eye-opening but it will help us get funding.

"We want to be the organisation that will help young people, because often young people respond better to other young people. We want to be able to expand our programmes to help more of these young men."

Mr. Simmons' group assisted with the study by providing Dr. Mincy with a dozen "wall sitters", as well as half-a-dozen young black males in the workforce. Those findings have yet to be made public, though Dr. Mincy said he hopes to complete it soon.

l For more information on Youth on the Move visit http://www.yom.bm/charity.html.