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09th March 2010
Students preparing for life after school
VOICE Reporter

Students across the island are preparing for life after school – and with things getting tighter for their parents, more teachers are helping them choose their paths. More schools are encouraging career showcases; and more persons organizations and institutions are being invited to help students shape their own future.
Last month, several secondary school principals and teachers invited leading personalities to address students on themes related to Independence. Among them was the Bocage Secondary School, which invited local businessman Rayneau Gajadhar to relate the Independence theme (‘We all are one’) to his $50,000 Generation Next (Gen X) program aimed at encouraging today’s students to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
Language teacher Rochelle Victor, who chaired the proceedings, said many students were motivated by Gajadhar’s address, which encouraged them to “make use of the opportunities you have that your parents and tour teachers didn’t have.”
This week it was the turn of the Anse Ger Secondary School in Desruisseaux, Micoud, which had a ‘double whammy’: it invited both Gen X and the National Skills Development Centre (NSDC) to talk to students about their programs.
Both entities employed information technology to get their messages across, using Power Point and live Internet presentations to back their talks and answer students’ questions.
NSDC Communications and PR Officer Lesley Modeste and Career Counselor Barry Williams used their laptops to explain what their centre caters for. They told the students it offers technical and vocational education (skills training) to men and women who are “St. Lucian, aged 16 to 65, unemployed, and can read and write.” It’s not an employment agency, but it prepares persons for the world of work. Trainees don’t get paid, but they leave with a skill to earn pay. Job attachments are sometimes arranged according to employers’ requests. And the skills training includes career counseling.
The Gen X team – Gajadhar, accompanied by Gen X Coordinator Navita Jarbandon and Gen X Coordinating Committee member Anselm Clauzel – explained that their program caters for young persons aged 18 to 34 and is specially aimed at students getting ready for the world of work. The $50,000 prize money will not go to one person, but will be shared among those with the best innovative and creative projects based on ideas that are “out of the box”. The program will give seed funding to the selected projects and those behind them will be put through a period of rigorous training in business-related subjects.
 
 

Gajadhar told the students he created the Gen X project “to cultivate in students an attitude of thinking all the time, coming up with an idea and sticking with it, building it up and making it work to put you to work after school.”
He also noted that students and young people “now have more opportunities to get ready for business because of the existence of new facilities” like the Youth Enterprise Equity Fund (YEEF) launched last week by the St. Lucia Development Bank (SLDB).
The local businessman said he and his company “want nothing” from those participating in the Gen X contest. He said he would not enter partnerships with or buy shares in the businesses created by successful applicants. All he wanted, he said, “is for students to stop thinking that somebody must have a job for them when they leave school, but to think instead, while still at school, of what job they will create for themselves when they leave school.”

One teacher said during the Question & Answer period she was “perplexed” that Mr Gajadhar would be “putting up so much money without expecting anything in return.” She said it sounded like it was “too good to be true.”
Gajadhar responded “I don’t think that many persons in the private sector will do what I’m doing, but it may be because of where I came from, how I grew up and who I am. But I’m doing this because I know and I believe that with every new job created and every new business opened it will be better for business and better for St. Lucia and that will make it a better place for us all.”
Anse Ger Secondary School Counselor Shahini Gravillis assured the Gen X and NSDC delegations that their presentations gave students much to think about and promised to ensure that those interested in any of the programs made the follow-up connections with the respective entities.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is preparing for a major career showcase exhibition to be held next month, where local companies will be invited to exhibit their products and students from across the island will get the opportunity to ponder on career choices as they get ready for the world of work.

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