Basseterre: St. Kitts : The education system must present students with the opportunities to explore the realm of non-traditional careers, a point made clear during the Finding Your Niche Discussion, moderated by Mr. Stephen Smith, Manager, Blue Torch Productions held Thursday, November 02, 2023, at the studio of the Education Media Unit.
Dr. Kertney Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of the St. Kitts and Nevis Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Secretariat, revealed that the role of the education system in career generation is shifting to expose students to non-traditional career options.
“We do have some initiatives going on in the Ministry of Education. I am leading the TVET sector where we are going to be offering certification that leads to National Vocational Qualifications and Caribbean Vocational Qualifications. These are going to be for skills that are in demand and are based on the Labour Market demand within St. Kitts and Nevis as well as across the Caribbean. We are talking about certification which leads into areas such as photovoltaic which is solar systems. The Education system is changing to allow these things to happen in our schools,” he said.
Noting the numerous types of jobs that are available to students, Dr. Thompson remarked “There are a lot of jobs available in what we call the Green Economy; we are talking about the solar system. We also have jobs in the Blue Economy which is the water. The Orange Economy is the entertainment sector.”
Dr. Thompson pointed out that jobs in the Agricultural sector are still pivotal to economic growth and development. “We must look at doing agriculture differently. There are trailer concepts of doing agriculture within a trailer. These are jobs that are still in demand. And with St. Kitts and Neis already signed on to the 25% by 2025 Initiative, for food security, we do need to produce more.”
Agreeing with the position that more needs to be done to promote alternative career choices for students, Ms. Tracy Wattley, Counselor and Principal of the Cayon High School, offered suggestions on how the promotion of alternative career choices can be fostered.
“You now have a workforce in terms of teachers in the education system, who you know must reframe their thinking as to what is important because there are still some teachers who would view certain subjects as being the important subject. How we [teachers] do testing and how we teach must also change. Teachers will need to be reskilled and schooled in terms of how they present the information.” She continued, “The Ministry of Education or the stakeholders as a whole, should be aware that these careers call for money, so the investment needs to be there. You can’t tell a teacher we will start doing this, but then don’t give them the resources that are needed.”
Both speakers agreed that exposing students to non-traditional career choices is imperative to the economic sustainability of our Twin Island Federation as they are the ones who will be driving our nation’s future economic development.