ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, June 20th, 2012 -- Members of the House of Assembly, President Dr Karl Dawson, faculty and staff of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, well wishers and to the graduates of this year’s Technical and Vocational Apprenticeship Programme, good afternoon.
I wish to extend my personal congratulations to our graduates. Your hard work and perseverance has all of us celebrating your accomplishment today. As our community celebrates with you, I urge you to go out into the job market, gain the necessary experience for your trade and find opportunities to become an integral part of the Virgin Islands community and economy.
Over the past months you have had a chance to gain meaningful knowledge and experience in the areas of; general house wiring, air conditioning and refrigeration repair, plumbing, culinary skills, small engine mechanics, along with computer application and office skills. These are all areas of professional skills that are vitally important to the overall development of this country.
Despite your personal situations, despite your circumstances, despite obstacles, you have risen above and beyond them, to get to this point today; and you must be commended.
It is my understanding that at the start of this programme for the 2011 – 2012 academic year, there were some 73 students including 19 from Virgin Gorda who expressed an interest in attending this programme. While all of them may have registered, today’s contingent of 37 graduates make up this year’s class of successful students as well as the largest cohort since the inception of this programme.
I want to further commend those graduates who completed two programmes during this academic year, namely Ms. Nicola Bailey in Culinary Skills and Office Skills and Mr. Brent Browne in House Wiring and Plumbing for taking on such a challenge and doing so successfully. Commendations must also be given to those students selected by your teachers as top students in various subjects:
• Shaquil Samuel and Roland Nobrega in House Wiring
• Nicola Bailey and Deshawne Douglas in General Culinary Skills
• Vidal Farrington in Small Engine Mechanics
• Jehlani Leonard in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration and
• George Smith in Plumbing
Since becoming the Minister of Education and Culture, it has been my mission to rebuild our community’s idea of technical and vocational professions. We have been too short-sighted in providing opportunities in our education system to cater to the trade industry and because of that, we have a hard time finding local tradesmen. Also, many of our young people are unaware of the lucrative opportunities in this industry. A benefit that I hope you graduates will soon realise.
Graduates, I hope it has become apparent to you over your courses that the technical and vocational industry is one that lends itself to opportunities in entrepreneurship, much sooner than other vocations. With the right experience, it is not inconceivable that any of you sitting here today, in the next three to five years would be in the position to have your own business.
While trying to keep up on my business practices these past few months, I have become acquainted with a new term that describes the hundreds of thousands of young persons that are your age that have decided to get into business for themselves, SOLOprenuers. As the name suggests, SOLOprenuers are simply entrepreneurs running a one-man show; a solo business owner.
In this newly named concept, I quickly saw opportunities for many young people in the Virgin Islands. When I decided to become an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry, lots of organisation, funding and support staff were needed to make the venture successful. However, for skilled labourers and particular professions, this is not always the case.
I also realised that the term SOLOprenuer might be new, however the concept has been around for many years and the name can be used to describe the early ventures of many of the Virgin Islands largest contractors and skilled professionals that now own major construction, hardware and auto companies.
It is not easy for me to think that one of our plumbing graduates that are sitting here today, can decide to get a few business cards, get listed in the phone book, put out a few flyers or better yet, a free Facebook page, and begin to market yourself as a skilled plumber, offering a valuable service to this community.
If you are not interested in getting into business for yourself, I encourage you to become an indispensible asset to the organisation that employs you. Our cars are being built with lots more technology than some of us know how to operate.
Learn more about a particular vehicle and its technology so that you can become the GO TO person in your sector for results. Your employer will see your value and that is sure to give you the economic and professional rewards of your talent.
I urge you to start your new careers off with the right attitude to your work. No one expects you to know everything after we leave this ceremony today, but a new employer expects to hire an employee that will fit into the culture of their organisation, be willing to learn, be able to take constructive criticism and at the end of the day, add value to the services that that organisation provides to our community. With the right attitude, your future clients and co-workers can become very useful in your overall growth and development.
Graduates, whatever it is that you decide to pursue after today, I encourage you to invest your time and energy, just as you did to ensure you would have the chance to attend this ceremony today, while on the job. I encourage you to pursue excellence in your profession and find your opportunity to be a part of the advancement of the Virgin Islands.
When this programme started in 2006 it received overwhelming support from the administration of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College and I am pleased that today, this support continues. I want to thank the Board of Governors, President Dawson, and the faculty and staff of the college, particularly its Workforce Training Division for your commitment to this programme and for finding opportunities to educate our community and build its capacity to meet the needs of the business sector.
To our graduates, please do not let today be the last day that you are on this campus. I hope I was able to peak your interest, just a little bit about business and entrepreneurship and I hope that you return to HLSCC to take a few additional courses to support any of your SOLOprenuer and business ambitions. Our community supports you and your desire for self-improvement and advancement and we will be looking for many great things from this class.
Congratulations once again to the Technical and Vocational Apprenticeship Programme’s class of 2012.
May God bless your future endeavours.
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