Youth expo helps students explore career paths

YOUTH Mobilisation Foundation founder Sule Joseph said the organisation’s expo at Queen’s Hall on January 17 was organised to give students from schools in Port of Spain an opportunity to see what career opportunities were open to them after leaving secondary school.

Speaking to Newsday after the formal opening of the event, Joseph explained why the NGO was formed.

“Youth Mobilisation is an NGO that targets working with youth, mobilising youth to assist youth. We find we should give back. The nation has given a lot to us, even if we don’t recognise it sometimes; free education, there are a lot of countries that don’t have that, and so what we have decided to do is to mobilise other youth to give back.”

He said the event was conceptualised based on what the foundation saw as a gap in knowledge.

“What we found is that there is a lot of violence occurring in Port of Spain and when we were interacting with the youth on the ground, they were complaining there were not a lot of programmes available to them. But then when we were liaising with the ministries, they were saying the programmes were undersubscribed. So we decided to have an event to bring the two together.”

Energy and Energy Ministries Minister Stuart Young was the feature speaker at the opening ceremony, along with Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland. Joseph said when he approached Young, he was enthusiastic about attending. The ministers interacted with the students during the open ceremony and took photos and selfies with the schools and students.

Joseph said he was looking forward to doing more events like this in Port of Spain and in other communities such as Tunupuna, as people in that community had contacted him.

Some of the schools attending the expo were Mucurapo East Secondary School, Mucurapo West Secondary School, Woodbrook Secondary School, Bishop’s Centenary College, Providence Girls Catholic Secondary School, Belmont Secondary School and St Francois Girls College. Those present were fourth-, fifth- and sixth-form students.

Mucurapo East Secondary School student Issachara Watts said the expo was a good opportunity.

“It shows youth a lot of things. They could come out and see there are a lot of the jobs we could get when we are older, so I like it.”

Mucurapo West Secondary School student Rondell Walker said he thought the fair was very interesting.

“It gives children more opportunity to know what they want to do when they leave school and I really like it, I hope they can have another one next year. I really liked the UWI booth because I really want to be a teacher, so I picked up some flyers.”

Bishops Centenary College student Tacara Lee said she thought the career fair would benefit her in her chosen career path.

“I do have the option of doing medicine but from time to time my ideas would change and I would want to explore what there is for me to chose from. Since this career fair has many different opportunities and new ways to learn of different things I didn’t know existed, I’m taking my time and looking around. It’s very helpful. I think it was a very wonderful idea.”

Students Nyiean Nottingham and Aaron Vargas from Morvant Laventille Secondary School said they liked the different career paths being presented. They especially liked the fire-service booth, where the firemen had given students the opportunity to dress in gear and attempt to pull a fire hose a certain distance.

“I like that because you could know what it feels like and decide if you want to do that instead of being mixed up. It have a lot of careers to choose from.”

Providence Girls Catholic Secondary School student Shania said the fair was informative.

“You’re getting good information about your life and you’re not limited to one thing alone. You could do more than one thing.”

The organisations with booths at the event included UWI, UTT, the University of the Southern Caribbean, the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service, YTEPP, UWI Roytec, Servol, the National Entrepreneurship Development Company, Sagicor, the North West Regional Health Authority, MIC-IT, the National Maintenance Training and Security Company (MTS), Hove and Associates, Sule Joseph and Associates, Tourism Trinidad, Eastern Credit Union, I AM ME technical and vocational training institute, the fire service, the defence force, the Chinese and US embassies and others.