Sandals Montego Bay has invited graduates of Green Pond High School who have no immediate plans to pursue tertiary education to register with the resort chain’s Sandals Corporate University to take up a six-week hospitality training programme.

Speaking at the school’s graduation ceremony last month, general manager of the hotel and vice chairman of the school board Carl Beviere pointed out that, “30 per cent of the employees at Sandals Montego Bay, and moreso within the Sandals chain, are a product of the six-week hospitality training programme, and many have gone on to hold top supervisor, manager and executive posts within the luxury-included chain.

“Sandals Resorts is committed to making a difference in the communities by providing skills training for those who perhaps would have never had access to higher academic opportunities. We change lives, and Green Pond High School will be of major focus to change the stigma attached to the community and the school itself,” Beviere said.

Green Pond is an underserved community in Montego Bay, and as such faces a raft of social challenges, including high rates of unemployment, illiteracy, crime, and violence.

Sandals, through its hospitality training programme, has been seeking to fill the breach in relation to employment by targetting unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30. The residents of Flanker and neighbouring communities have preiously reaped the benefits and now show a reduction in unemployment figures.

Principal Michael Ellis said he welcomed Sandals Montego Bay’s contribution to help facilitate change by creating employment and skills training opportunities for high school leavers and those unemployed.

Reporting on initiatives the school itself has undertaken to improve the students, Ellis said the 11-year-old institution has taken a holistic approach to development.

He noted some of the academic plans to be rolled out in the new school year, stating that, “the new National Standards Curriculum for Grades 1 – 9 students will be fully implemented. This curriculum embraces the STEM approach, which basically incorporates science, technology, engineering and mathematics in all the disciplines which are done throughout Grades 1 – 9. The approach to teaching and learning is what schools across the world are adapting as they cater to the learning needs of 21st century learners.

“Green Pond High School is currently one of the pilot schools for this new curriculum,” Ellis said.