The Tribune

GRAND Bahama – The first ever Grand Bahama Industrial, Technical and Maritime Career Fair closed out at the Grand Lucayan Resort Grand Ball Room with many declaring it a huge success.

Leslie Dorsett, project officer with the Ministry for Grand Bahama, explained that the aim of the career fair, a collaborative venture organised by the Ministry for Grand Bahama, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture; the Falcons Boys Club and other private partners, was to introduce students on Grand Bahama to the careers which are available on the island.

During the two-day event, 2,500 students from 13 high schools on the island took part. The participants were in grades 9–12.

Addressing the students, Ms Dorsett said: “We believe that offering you an opportunity to inquire and gain sufficient knowledge of these opportunities will awaken your interest and as a result, propel each of you towards receiving the training and certification needed to take advantage of the jobs that are and will become available in these sectors.”

She said 24 companies and organisations were taking part in the career fair.

These included: the Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO), Bahama Rock Limited, Bradford Marines, BTC, BTVI, Cable Bahamas, Elnet Maritime Limited, Freeport Container Port, Freeport Harbour Company, Grand Bahama Airport Company, Grand Bahama Health Services, Grand Bahama Port Authority, GB Power Company, GB Shipyard, Grand Lucayan Resort, LJM Maritime Academy out of New Providence, Machinery and Energy Limited, Pharmachen, Polymers International, Pineyard Steel, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Royal Bahamas Police Force and Statoil South Riding Point.

Ms Dorsett said the students were offered knowledge about 500 different careers, including: tug boat operator, crane driver, berth operator, radiologist, paramedic, safety officer, engineer, IT technician, ship agent, pharmacist, steel fabricator, welder, web developer, industrial mechanic, naval architect, plumber and carpenter.

At each booth there was a sign in sheet for the students, and they were required to sign their name to the one company in which they were most interested, to help the ministry organise field trips in the future.

Undersecretary at the Ministry for Grand Bahama Cecil Thompson termed the Career Fair “a huge success,” saying he has never seen anything like it in his entire teaching career.

Mr Thompson is a former high school principal, deputy director of education, and served for a period as the director of education.

He was keen on pointing out the contributions made by the Minister for Grand Bahama, Dr Michael Darville to the success of the affair.

“From the time minister was approached about the possibility of staging such an event, the ministry for Grand Bahama went running with it as was able to get other ministries and the corporate community to buy into it.

“I have really never seen anything like that and you know my background is in teaching and we had a successful technical and vocational programme at Hawksbill High School.

“But I say it was unprecedented, historic and there was huge participation by both the private and public schools on the island,” he said.

Mr Thompson believes that private schools would have benefited much from the event, pointing out that they are more academically patterned and do not have technical and vocational programmes in their schools. He predicted the event will be placed on the yearly calendar.

“It was tremendous, and we know what we need to do to improve on it. Definitely, going forward we would need more space,” he said.