ITVET Hosts Open Day
Technical and Vocational Education has traditionally been a field dominated by males, but this year, the program is aggressively proposing to change that to include women. ITVET is holding activities this week to promote equal opportunities. This morning, a group of students from Punta Gorda walked away with the top prize for their product, Xococcino – a unique chocolate and coffee drink. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
“Diversity in TVET: Providing and Promoting Equal Opportunities for Both Men and Women” – that’s the theme for this year’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training Week, celebrated this week by the Ministry of Education. Activities will be held across its compounds throughout the country to celebrate the inclusion of young men and women into the many programs offered by TVETs. The idea is to break the cycle include women in engineering, carpentry and other technical skills.
Dean Tillett
Dean Tillett, Assistant Manager, ITVET Belize City
“We are trying to move away from just providing the training for guys maybe in the traditional area for guys; we want to incorporate more females in our program and so for this open day we plan to see how we can promote that theme. We want to see how we can promote that and one of the things that we are doing also is providing scholarships for young ladies to enter some of these non-traditional programs. It’s unfortunate that there is still this stigma existing on ITVET and not just ITVET Belize, but speaking about ITET Belize, unfortunately some people see it as a last effort to send their child. If they don’t get into any other institution, then let us try ITVET or if they dropped out of high school, then let us look at the option of ITVET. I think strongly the ministry is dismissing that stigma as well.”
Yisselda Coc
Students from across the country converged today at the Belize City campus on Freetown Road for the annually ITVET Open Day.
Yisselda Coc, Xococcino
“We came up with this idea because in Toledo we have cacao and coffee. So we took those two raw products and mix it up and came up with something, Xococcino. That’s what we made and our group worked so hard because we wanted to come here not just to participate, but to win…to be first place winner and we did it!”
Assistant Manager at the ITVET Belize City, Dean Tillett says that Belizeans need to see the value and importance of TVET in industry and the growth of the economy. Tillett says that presently four high schools, including Maud Williams, Sadie Vernon, Nazarene and Excelsior are getting training in TVET and it is in the Ministry of Education pipeline that other schools will partner with the institution.
Dean Tillett
“Doctor Babb clearly mentioned in her opening remarks this morning the importance of TVET to drive this country, to push us forward. And in one of the speeches that we had this morning by Mister Jorge Auil, and he represent industry this morning and he speaks volumes in terms of the importance of TVET. Being a TVET person himself—I believe he attended Belize technical College back in the days—we want to promote the value of TVET and everything right now that we are focusing on in terms of this week, we want to promote the importance of training and how TVET can go on into the workplace and actually be something of importance.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
