by Devonne Cornelius
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN) — A new multi-million dollar Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) wing is to be constructed at the Charlestown Secondary School (CSS) in Nevis.
Junior Minister of Education within the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), the Hon. Troy Liburd made that disclosure recently while speaking during the NIA’s 2021 Budget.
“There is supposed to be a redoing of the technical wing at the Charlestown Secondary School. That one has not commenced as yet in terms of the physical work but the project is well underway. The plans and so on have been drawn and all of the consultants and so on have been put on the project.”
Chief Executive Officer of the TVET Secretariat and Project Coordinator of the TVET Enhancement Project in St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Kertney Thompson, told WINN that the TVET wing at CSS is expected to cost $6.2million.
Work is expected to commence in 2021 on the three-story building that will house classes including Mechanical Engineering, Cosmetology, Home Economics, and Hospitality.
The TVET wing for CSS is part of a collaborative TVET Enhancement Project between the federal government and the NIA.
“It is not our project alone here in Nevis. It’s a federal project that we are a part of, and one of the deliverables of the project here in Nevis is a technical wing at the Gingerland Secondary School[GSS] that is already under construction…and I must say the construction is going well,” Minister Liburd declared in the NIA.
Minister Liburd said the construction of the TVET wings at the public schools will add to the advancement of skills training and certification for young school-leavers.
“Students are going to be getting what you call CVQ…[the Caribbean Vocational Qualification] or the NVQ…[National Vocational Qualification]. You can walk out of school with your CVQ or NVQ as an electrician and walk onto a job, and you are not going to be a laborer or maybe not even an apprentice, depending on your level.
“You might be a competent electrician or plumber, or mason, and that is what is going to come out of this. This is addressing something that people have been talking about for a long time… ‘oh we want people coming out of school with more practical skills and more practical knowledge’. Well, this is the project to do it,” he said.
