Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth — Seeking to be true to its mandate, St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) recently staged an exposition to promote the value of technical/vocational education.

The work of students in a range of departments including industrial technology, home economics, business, science, visual arts and agriculture were on display.

Grade nine students who are now exploring courses of study that may take them down their career paths also got the benefit of motivational talks, insights and guidance from past students who now operate in a range of disciplines, including medicine, business, accounting, engineering, land surveying and teaching.

Vice-principal Sandra Holness said the success of the project, which carried the theme ‘Tech-Voc: The Driving Force For The Future’, took her by surprise.

“To tell you the truth, I never thought it would have come off as well as it did. Students and teachers had very little time to prepare and yet, they were outstanding,” she said.

“After this, we will be doing this every year and in future, we will be involving the community much, much more,” she said.

Holness said school leaders decided on the exposition as a way to promote the value of skills training in an integrated school curriculum; and also to demonstrate the advantages, for high school graduates, of having technical and vocational skills as they seek career paths, including entrepreneurship.

“Very importantly, we sought to show that science and the scientific approach must be the base for everything,” Holness said.