Chief Executive Officer of the Pinelands Creative Workshop, Rodney Grant
Ryan Byer, Officer in Charge, University of the West Indies, Open Campus
Life preparation skills critical
Thu, 06/16/2016 - 12:00am
Over 25 secondary school students are being equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to assist them with their preparation for life after school.
This is being done through the 16th annual Career & Life Management (CALM) Programme. The two week Programme will run from June 13 to 24 at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Open Campus. It is being presented by the Pinelands Creative Workshop, the Maria Holder Memorial Trust and the UWI, Open Campus.
Addressing Monday’s Opening Ceremony at the Campus, Ryan Byer, Officer in Charge, UWI Open Campus explained that, “The primary objective of the Programme is to enhance the capacity of the students to respond to demand of the changing working environment through developing essential knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required for a successful orientation and functioning in the workplace.”
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Pinelands Creative Workshop, Rodney Grant shared that CALM “is actually aligned this year with the country’s Human Resources Development strategy”. He encouraged participants to see the Programme as important and to grasp the information shared. He especially encouraged the male students to be active participants during the various sessions.
“I really hope that you can take advantage and be active participants in the Programme because really the next step after school is really important and this Programme is really about the next step – what it is that you want to do [and] preparing you to make the next step, whether it is to continue to pursue education… or whether it is starting a business or whether it is going into the existing employment stream.”
Over the two weeks pupils of the Lester Vaughan School, Frederick Smith Secondary School, Graydon Sealy Secondary School, The St. Michael School, Parkinson Memorial Secondary School and the Springer Memorial Secondary School will be exposed to range of topics. These will include: Office Etiquette, Communicating Your Person Brand and Digital Citizenship – Using Technology Appropriately.
The theme of CALM for this year is ‘Human Resource Development’ with emphasis on career planning and developing employability skills, values and policies.(MG)