The Health Services Authority (HSA) was honoured with two prestigious awards at the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Business Excellence Award on Saturday, 15th November.
HSA received both the Training Champion and the Commitment to Youth Education awards, recognising the organisation’s longstanding dedication to local talent development and youth empowerment.
The Training Champion Award recognises organisations dedicated to enhancing skills and building a resilient workforce for Cayman’s future. The Commitment to Youth Education Awards highlights businesses that have exceeded expectations in supporting students and learning through partnerships, internships and educational programmes.
In accepting the award for Training Champion, Ms. Lizzette Yearwood, CEO of the HSA, expressed that “we take immense pride in offering various training programmes to Caymanians, opening doors to new career opportunities and further strengthening our local workforce … training and development is not only to benefit your team, but more importantly, to benefit all of our patients and wider community.”
Over the years, the HSA has launched and expanded numerous training, development and youth education initiatives designed to cultivate home-grown talent and create career opportunities for Caymanians to contribute to the health sector.
“Investing in our youth and providing resources for their development is something HSA takes great pride in. They are the future of our country, and we have a responsibility to support their ambitions,” noted Ms. Yearwood upon receiving the Committed to Youth Education Award.
She further emphasised that programmes such as the organisation’s Summer Student Internship Programme, “strengthen Cayman’s future workforce by cultivating a local talent pipeline. Students build relationships with mentors, see how multidisciplinary teams collaborate, and begin to visualise long-term careers. As cohorts move through internships, the cumulative effect is a growing pool of Caymanian candidates who are better prepared, more resilient, and more likely to thrive in the sector.”
“HSA has many success stories of young Caymanians starting as interns in our summer student programme or participating in the medical internship programme and returning to HSA following their studies.”
Other HSA development initiatives include the Transition to Practice Nursing Programme, Healthcare Aide Programme, Emergency Medical Services Training, Operating Rooms Assistant Training, Phlebotomy Technician Certification, Medical Internships, CIFEC Healthcare Aide Mentorships, among others.