Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 28, 2014 (SKNIS): Motivating students to develop skills through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes has been playing an essential role in the upgrades being made at secondary schools in St. Kitts.
“One of the areas [the Ministry of Education] is focusing on is Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) which is giving students the technical skills, the technical way withal to be able to perform those technical functions, to become technicians, builders, innovators, engineers in tomorrow’s world,” said Minister of Education the Hon. Nigel Carty.
“The repairs we are doing at many of the schools really go along towards creating an environment in which that kind of training can take place,” he explained. “So we are looking at our woodwork labs and technical drawing labs for example.”
The Minister mentioned that, at the Washington Archibald High School, spaces have been reconfigured and renovated to provide the atmosphere and the facility in which people can be trained in technical skills. This included new furniture for the technical drawing lab.
Minister Carty added that the Verchild’s High School is also “expected to play a critical role in discharging [the Ministry’s] mandate with respect to TVET developments” as upgrades were done to the EDPM room where young people are expected to be trained in technical skills.
The Ministry has also provided tools and equipment for the electricity, woodwork and metalwork programmes across all secondary schools in St. Kitts.
“So the repairs that we are doing are not only helping to create a better looking atmosphere but a more functional atmosphere with respect to helping with our TVET programme,” the Education Minister explained.
Minister Carty stated that TVET is an area that his Ministry is placing heavy emphasis and focus on and trusts that “the next generation of Kittitians and Nevisians particularly those from the Verchild’s High School, can be not just technicians but top-notch technicians.”
He further stated that the aim to encourage persons to develop technical skills will hopefully resolve youth joblessness as “one of the drivers for youth unemployment is really the lack of skills among some of our young people.”
“So we trust that we may get great success through our investment making sure that our young people are trained to take on these roles in society,” he concluded.
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