Major League Baseball, Dominican Republic Sign Deal on Athlete Education

Above: the signing of the agreement (Photo: CIG)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Labour, Major League Baseball and two other agencies have signed an agreement on vocational training and youth employment in the country’s baseball academies.

The agreement also included the National Institute of Technical and Vocational Training and the Cyber Park technology free zone.

While many Dominican players go on to the Major Leagues, from Jose Reyes to Hanley Ramirez, many more do not — and lack skills to enter or re-enter the work force.

Labour Minister Francisco Dominguez Brito said the initiative seeks to expand the scope of education for players and enhance the ability of athletes to return to work in other jobs.

The programme will help provide education for many of the athletes in the academies, and will create a registry of those enrolled in the academies.

Idionis Perez, the director of the National Institute of Technical and Vocational Training, pledged to develop training plans for young athletes in the academies, and will offer a total of 30 scholarships for continuing education courses in subjects like computer basics and IT essentials.

As part of the agreement, Major League Baseball assumed the responsibility of creating a programme to improve the education level of young athletes who are or have been in the academies in the last two years.

All of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams have academies in the Dominican Republic.

Note: an earlier version of this story reported that only 28 MLB teams have academies in the Dominican Republic.